Blossoming Swallowtail
by Saddened Melody
Summary: Finally! Chapter 8 Posted. Ayane discovered the truth about the DOA tournament that would be held within a week's time, however, will Kasumi live long enought to discover this for herself now that she faces her first life or death situation since she left
1. Chapter 1: Ayane and Kasumi

**Edit: I've updated this chapter, fixed up some spelling mistakes here and there and added a few more lines to add to the overall feeling. I'm currently at my 6th chapter really and I just wanted to **

**make my first chapter a bit more presentable.**

**Updated Disclaimer: _Ah, my first disclaimer. Brings back some memories from way back when (a month ago). Anyways, I don't own Dead or Alive or any of it's characters, I just enjoy the game so much that I decided to try my hand at writing a story based off it. So please don't sue me._**

_**Ages (when in italics)- Kasumi 7 years old**_

_**Ayane 6 years old**_

_**Ages (standard text) – Kasumi 15 years old**_

_**Ayane 14 years old.**_

**Blossoming Swallowtail**

**Chapter 1: Ayane and Kasumi**

_Only a soft blow of the wind graced the mountains as the clear blue sky spread out like an ocean high up in the heavens. The sun's light kept the air warm and none to moist, meaning a perfect day for those who were fortunate enough to bathe within it's rays._

"_Onee-san...where are we going?" a young girl's shy voice could be heard as a whisper carried out by the breeze._

"_I want to show you something!" another girl's voice answered, excitement evident in her tone._

_Among the trees of the vast forest which belonged to the Mugen Tenshin Clan walked two young girls, hand in hand towards a still destination that was still unknown. The girls chatted away as they strolled, excited whispers and giggles filled the forest giving it life in a way that was rarely seen considering how dangerous it could be to venture too far into the ninja clan's domain._

_The Mugen Tenshin Clan was strict about it's methods and would allow no risks to the safety of their clan. Secrecy of course was the sole solution to keeping the clan's secrets safe from outsiders and of course, if any outsiders managed to actually get passed the deadly traps within the forest...they were swiftly delt with with said secrets._

_Yet, the older of the two, a bubbly young girl with large almond colored eyes that went well with her light brown colored hair, seemed to know exactly where to go and how to avoid being hurt by the forest's many hidden tricks. In fact, it seemed as if she was barely paying any mind to where she was stepping and yet, both girls were perfectly fine._

_It was quite obvious that these were not by any means, ordinary girls._

"_Here! Here!" said the brown haired girl to the younger one before coming to a screeching halt. The other girl barely had the time to say or do anything before she collided face first into the older one, a soft moan escaped her mouth as she fell to the ground, using her rear end to cushion her fall. The older girl quickly told her to quiet down with a quick gesture of a finger to her lips while the other tried vainely to soothe her pain._

_The brunette looked back to the smaller girl and gave her a worried look, the younger one caught sight of her gaze and simply gave her a reasurring smile which in turn, was returned by the other girl._

"_Are you alright Ayane?" the older girl asked a few instances later, having judged that her question would most likely not really disturb the peace within the woods. Ayane smiled and nodded, shaking off her mild daze in the process._

"_I'm okay Kasumi..." Ayane assured her, she quickly rubbed a small scratch off her nose with her hand before giving Kasumi another sweet smile._

_Kasumi returned her grin and then turned her attention back to the main objectif for their walk. _

_A small clearing in the middle of the forest, filled with thousands upon thousands of flowers. _

_She had stumbled upon this little discovery during one of her little excursions and had insisted on keeping it a secret from everyone except Ayane. She knew that the young purple haired child would be the only one who would be able to appreciate it, that and she always had a hard time explaining how she stumbled upon things in the forest when she wasn't even supposed to leave the village, being practically royalty and everything, atleast Ayane didn't question._

"_Wow..." Ayane was at a loss of words, it was one of the most stunning sights she had ever seen. She was literally hypnotized by the sight of all the differently coloured flowers before her. The poor girl wasn't quite as lucky as Kasumi was, living in a small rundown hut deep in the forest as opposed to Kasumi's luxurious home. Her lifestyle was also quite different in comparason to that of her older friend. _

_The girl knew about Kasumi's way of living, and yes, she was a little envious, who wouldn't be in her situation? But she never once said anything about it as it really wasn't Kasumi's fault or anything to begin with. Besides, despite their different social standings Kasumi had always been such a kind person to her. Pretty much the only person who ever showed her kindness and that was around her age._

_And Ayane was grateful to her for that._

_  
Ayane kept her sights on the beautiful clearing without paying much attention to her surroundings. Still busy absorbing as much as her young mind could of the magnificent field of flowers to her memory. _

_Which proved to be a fatal mistake as she took one step too many towards the enticing plants, completely entranced by the sight before her. Her friend tried to stop her, but it was already too late._

_Ayane had stepped somewhere she really shouldn't have._

_For that moment, Ayane's thoughts remained blissfully unaware of the many poison laced arrows that were now prepared to completely skewer their target._

_That is, until Kasumi intervened._

_Reacting as soon as Ayane's foot hit the trap, she lunged forward and knocked Ayane down to the ground with her weight, sending both girls rolling down a small hill and allowing Ayane to escape an untimely demise as the arrows hit nothing but a small slab of dirt which helped indicate where one of the more obvious traps layed. Sadly, that wasn't all that that trap could do._

_A loud sound ressembling an explosion filled the forest, as the second part of the trap was triggered by the arrows, agitating the denizens of the prairie and causing a huge puff of smoke that would most likely agitate their clan as well. That the trap had filled it's function quite well. If it didn't kill it's target, it would alert the clan of the presence of an intruder...or of an unfortunate accident._

_Millions of swallowtail butterflies took to the sky, frightened by the sound of possible danger, each leaving an individual flower making it seem as if the flowers themselves were throwing themselves to the sweet breeze of summer. Ayane slowly opened her eyes, only to find a teary-eyed Kasumi on top of her, Kasumi, now completely devoid of her earlier excitement was now donning a look of extreme worry and mild anger as she glared at Ayane with her big brown eyes._

"_Ayane..." she said, softly biting her inner lip, Ayane looked back at her with a look of mild confusion, she was not unaware of the danger she had just narrowly escaped, it was Kasumi's present reaction that threw her off. "Kasumi...? Are you alright?" the young girl asked, even thought, given the situation, the question probably should have been adressed to someone else. Kasumi closed her eyes and turned away from Ayane, rubbing the sleeve of her red yukata over her eyes to wipe away the tears of fear that she had just shed._

"_I'm...i'm fine Ayane!" Kasumi quickly replied, flashing a bright smile to Ayane in an attempt to lighten the mood, "How about you?" she asked._

_  
"I'm alright, Onee-san" Ayane said as she nodded and attempted to return the smile. Something caught her attention after a few instances thought, she pointed up at the sky, at the butterflies that were flying above them, "Hey, look at that!" she said excitedly to Kasumi as the both got up. Kasumi beamed, "I'm glad you enjoyed...though I was actually hoping you would spot them before they took flight..." she said with a playful look of dissapointment._

_Ayane stuck her tongue out at Kasumi, "Guess i'm not as well trained as little miss perfect huh?" she said with a giggle._

_Kasumi made a face at the mention of that name, she hated it when Ayane called her that, that and Little Princess. She took a look back at the place where Ayane had nearly met her end._

_  
Kasumi didn't quite know why, but for some reason, Ayane didn't receive as much training and teachings as she did. Which was strange since they were both in the same clan after all. She smiled though, being the older sister that she was to Ayane, she took it upon herself to teach Ayane some of the basics that she would learn during her own lessons so that Ayane wouldn't feel too left out._

_Then an idea came to mind, maybe it was because she lived so far away from the village itself that she wasn't receiving as much guidance from the village instructors? Ayane lived quite a ways out into the woods with her uncle, so far that Kasumi often wondered why they chose to live there since she could never see Ayane unless she herself went to visit and play, Ayane being too undertrained to wander on her own in the forest._

_Kasumi liked Ayane a lot, she couldn't have Ayane wandering around the forest where she could get hurt now could she? What kind of big sister would she be?_

_And Kasumi knew that...some people weren't quite as fond as Ayane as she was..._

_Ayane was only one year younger than she was and had bright purple hair as well as reddish brown eyes which acted as a powerful contrast to her pale white skin. She was shy, sweet and for a 7 year old, very clever . Ayane was a little smaller than the brunette but that only helped to make her even more adorable to her ever loving "big sister". _

_Both of them did everything together ever since they met. They acted as one would suspect loving sisters would do._

_They even refered to each other as so. Ayane was the little sister that Kasumi had never had and she cherished the girl's company like none other._

_Ayane didn't treat Kasumi differently, like everyone else in the village did. To her, Kasumi was just Kasumi and nothing else._

_Ayane waved a small hand infront of Kasumi's now dazed eyes and asked "Big sister?", trying to wake Kasumi up._

Ayane's attention had been brought back to her friend's state and had since been trying to communicate with her. 

_For a solid 10 minutes._

"_Eh?" Kasumi spoke out in surprise as a result of Ayane's snapping fingers._

"What were you thinking about Kasumi?" Ayane asked calmly as she sat down on the soft grass and came face to face with Kasumi.

Kasumi had somehow fallen back on her rump during her daydreaming. So she sat up and straightened up her clothes before announcing that she was simply thinking about this and that with a sly smile.

**End of Chapter 1**

**So this is my updated version of the first chapter. I hope to do some of the other chapters soon! If you have problems and prefer how the older version was written well...that could be a problem since I saved over the old version! (hehe...whoops)**

**Oh well. Thanks for all your support and leave a review as you leave ok? This guy needs as many reviews as possible to keep my interest for this fic going! I love praise but criticism is also accepted if it leads to more praise!**

**Anyways, till next time**

Saddened Melody-

A.K.A --Final


	2. Chapter 2: Kasumi's Desertion

**Edit: Well now, I've updated my second chapter to make it more like my 6th chapter's writing style. Hopefully I'm not screwing around with a good thing here but I can't stand knowing that there are lots of strange differences between my chapters.**

**Disclaimer: _My second disclaimer is just like the first. I don't own Dead or Alive or any of it's characters, though I wish I did. Too bad._**

**Blossoming Swallowtail**

**Chapter 2: Kasumi's Desertion**

_Ayane waved a small hand infront of Kasumi's now dazed eyes and asked "Big sister?", trying to wake Kasumi up._

Ayane's attention had been brought back to her friend's state and had since been trying to communicate with her. 

_For a solid 10 minutes._

"_Eh?" Kasumi spoke out in surprise as a result of Ayane's snapping fingers._

"What were you thinking about Kasumi?" Ayane asked calmly as she sat down on the soft grass and came face to face with Kasumi.

Kasumi had somehow fallen back on her rump during her daydreaming. So she sat up and straightened up her clothes before announcing that she was simply thinking about this and that with a sly smile.

Thoughts of the past plagued Kasumi's mind as she quickly grabbed hold of her Tanto in one hand while the other quickly prepared a small bag of provisions and basic necessities.

"..." a silent look befell Kasumi's face.

She found it rather odd that she had just now paid any mind to those old childhood memories as they were all part of a time in her life that she was supposed to have forgotten.

Or atleast, that she wish she could just forget.

"Ayane" she whispered softly to herself without even realising it, the dim glow of the moon shining down on her as if to declare her present actions to all the world. Her hands tightened into fists without her consent at the thought of her younger "sibling". It had been 8 years since she had last seen her face to face and for Kasumi, those 8 years had been way too short and filled with way too many flashes of purple to suit her liking.

Quickly tucking her tanto knife into it's sheath on her back, she decided to put those thoughts aside and concentrate on the more important task at hand.

She let out a sigh as she took one last look at the room that she would most likely never see again, her own. Lit up by the moon's gentle glow, her bed looked so inviting at that very moment...but she knew better than to let herself be tempted by such a luxury at a time like this. She glanced at the walls, uncolored as they were it was a truly a sad sight for her as she had always wanted to have her room's walls a nice peach colored tone, on them, some wall mounted shelves hung, displaying some of her most favorite possessions.

Had anyone been watching, they would have easely seen that only one object had captured Kasumi's attention on top of the shelf nearest to her bed.

A small clumsily assembled paper crane that looked as if it had seen better times.

Kasumi looked away.

As she approached the door to her room, a cool gust of wind blew past her from the window, filling the room with a cold presence as if the wind itself was trying to predict how this room would feel in future nights like this.

She closed the door without a sound.

Kasumi tredded quietly throughtout the corridors of her...home, looking past every corner and being careful not to make any sounds on the old panels of the floorboards. She didn't want to alert the patrolling guards of her presence nor did she want to hurt anyone so whenenever she came across a guard who happened to be between her and her objective she would easely get them out of the way by tossing a rock near some dark corner to distract them, the simplest of tricks in the ninja handbook.

The guards were loyal alright but obviously a little overpaid and very undertrained.

As she got closer and closer to the objective of her mission, Kasumi realized that there was still one thing left to do before leaving this place for good. Luckily, the area where she had stopped was as good a place as any to accomplish her last task as a Mugen Tenshin Clan member.

That and...there was someone in there she had to see one last time.

Kasumi leaned back on the door of a room she had just entered. Her small figure outlined by the moonlight once more as she approached the window.

She slowly sat down on her knees next to a mat where a man slept peacefully.Had this been any other man, Kasumi knew that her mission would be in jeopardy but she knew that she had nothing to fear from this person. Because there was no possible way for him to betray her, in fact, there was probably no possible way for him to do anything.

Ever again.

"Nii-san..." she whispered softly to her older brother, grabbing hold of one of his hands in hers and placing it to her cheek as she let roll a few tears onto his motionless form.

"Please lend me your strenght..." she prayed, clasping his hand tightly and leaving a scrawled piece of paper in his palm before letting go.

She moved her brother's bangs away and gazed at his peaceful demeanor for a few seconds before giving him a small kiss on the forehead. Kasumi slowly wiped away her shed tears before deciding that she had had enough time for her final goodbye, now wasn't the time to get sentimental. She left her brother's resting place, not turning back as if she feared that more hesitation would get in her way if she stayed any longer.

"Mother, father, Hayate...I- I love you all, please forgive me for I feel it is something...I must do..." she whispered as she closed her eyes while sliding the door shut.

Of course, life isn't exactly black and white and it is far from being a soap opera Kasumi realised as the heartwrenching moment was cut short by her small yelp as she closed the sliding door a little too quickly, right on her fingers.

Kasumi whimpered lightly, keeping the colorful vocabulary that any normal person would say in this situation under wraps, her eyes wide from the pain as she stuck her index and middle fingers between her lips in an effort to sooth the pain.

Despite that mild disaster, Kasumi was still as resolute as ever as she headed towards the gates that would lead to the village. She leaned back on a wall and took a glance out of the corner of her eye towards the gate, in search of the guard that was to be posted there but she was unable to find any sign of him.

This worried Kasumi, she had suspected that the guard that would be on duty at this post would be a much toughter opponent to fool than the others given that he or she would be the first in line if an attack from opposing ninja factions were to arise(which wasn't all that common she had to say...) meaning her was most likely a member of the elite guard.

She wasn't able to tell where that guard was at the moment just from listening so, to her, either the guard was very skilled in the art of stealth or he or she was stationnary at the moment. She tossed a stone towards a corner that would allow her to see where the guard would come from while she stayed perfectly still in the shadows to prevent from being seen. But the guard never took her bait. In fact, there was not a thing that so much as moved coming from that direction.

Kasumi decided that finding out her target's position should be the first priority as she took out a sleep dart that she kept hidden in her armband and placed it between three of her fingers.

She closed her eyes, controlled her breathing and tried her best to supress the sound of her own heartbeat from her attention in order to catch any sign of the last guard, but all she managed to hear was the steady sound of breathing coming from close by, which she assumed was coming from Hayate's room.

Things remained quiet.

Kasumi had enough, as much as she desired to remain calm about the situation, she felt that time was of the essence and that she had nearly run out of it.

Well, that's the way her mind explained anyways. In truth, she was getting a little bit impatient.

So she chose to risk everything by taking a quick peek around the corner to where she guessed the guard would be, seeing as how she could not see him from where she was. She played with the dart in her hands as she glanced around for the skilled ninja who represented her last obstacle.

And she nearly face-faulted as she discovered how exactly the guard had managed to elude her.

He was asleep.

Kasumi's view on guards had changed so much in just one night, "These people were supposed to protect us?" Kasumi wondered with a sweatdrop. She had read quite a few books wish such comical situations involving guards but she had refused to believe that such noble and loyal men and women(in a lot of cases of her clan) could be prone to such things.

She almost felt like kicking the poor man off his chair and questionning him as to when did he perfect that technique but she knew better than to waste a good thing so she simply walked throught the gate, turning back only once to stick her tongue out at the guard which was definitly from a side of Kasumi that not many people were aware of.

But, like it was stated earlier, life isn't exactly black and white.

If Kasumi met the action of leaving her home forever in such a way it was merely to hide the simple fact that was she terrified.

In fact, it was pretty obvious that going out by the front gate was probably one of the stupidest ways for someone to run away and yet she did it that way because somewhere deep down, maybe she was hoping to get caught by her clan? Ws she terrified of leaving her family and friends? Afraid of carrying out her mission? Or afraid of facing her friends as enemies in the future?

The answer was simple.

Yes.

She'd be a fool not to be afraid.

But in the end, she had finally gone throught with it, she did what she knew was both right and wrong at the same time. She had become a Runaway Shinobi.

Not surprisingly, becoming one had not been so difficult.

Still, Kasumi had very little comfort to fetch from this fact...

Because she knew that the difficult part was remaining one.

**The next morning...**

"Ayane has arrived as per your summons Lord Genra"

"Send her in"

The young lesser ninja bowed her head and headed back to the door of her lord's training facility, which served as a meeting place when not in use, to tell the guest about her lord's approval.

But she needn't have made two steps before the doors slammed open, letting a small burst of early morning winds creep inside the room.

Up, but obviously not too happy with that state, a purple haired teen stood at the entrance with her arms still spread out wide from when she opened the door with force.

"Umm...Miss Ayane of the..." she was cute short of her introduction by Genra.

"Ayane, need I remind you that respect is a key element to your training here, not to mention patience."

Ayane seemed to ignore all of Genra's last sentence, she was wearing a very menacing glare mixed with eyes that lead to believe that she was not quite awake yet. Genra should have known better than to summon her at such an early hour but the matter needed to be discussed with her favorite student immediately.

The lesser ninja eyed the sleepy looking 14 year old, she knew perfectly well that despite all the intensive training that Ayane had gone throught, she had never quite gotten past her sour morning attitude.

Which added to her already present fear of the purple haired kunoichi.

"Ayane, sit" Genra told the girl while motionning towards a yellow pillow not too far from him.

Ayane however, took the command a little too litterally as she fell to her knees on the hard wood floor.

Seemingly, the fall had little to no effect on the girl so Genra decided to simply get to the point before she did something else to embarrass her teacher.

"We have been assigned a new target. One that we must locate as soon as possible."

"Why?" Ayane mumbled lightly, not really caring that she probably shouldn't question her superiors in such a manner, while gazing at Genra or more precisely, at the oxygen molecules infront of him.

Genra dismissed it, he knew how the girl could be sometimes, besides, that's was part of her charm.

"The target is a Runaway Shinobi and thus a traitor to our clan and way of life."

"When?", at this point Ayane was slightly more awake, if Genra was talking to her about this, it was most likely because he expected her to handle it. It was probably a good idea to be well informed lest she be caught unprepared.

"Last night, the target left a note as a signed confession and to explain the motives to her actions." Genra informed, he slid the note towards Ayane to let her see.

Ayane's eyes widened, she was completely awake now.

"We do not need her alive..." Genra added in a deeper tone.

"I understand." Ayane replied without an ounce of hesitation.

"I will carry out this mission without fail!"

**End of Chapter 2**

_**You unlocked Alternate ending 2!**_

"Last night, the target left a note as a signed confession and to explain her actions." Genra informed, he slid the note towards Ayane to let her see.

Ayane's eyes widened, she was completely awake now, well atleast it looked that way.

"We do not need her alive..." Genra added in a deeper tone.

"Understood, I will dispose of this Mac Ncheese person right away" Ayane replied without an ounce of hesitation.

Genra stared at the girl with a puzzled face and took a look at the note he just handed her.

"Taki you fool! I told you to give me the note from Kasumi! Not my grocery list!" he yelled at the servant girl as she laughed to the point of tears at Ayane who was currently mumbling with her eyes closed

"Must destroy Runaway Mac Ncheese..."

Genra let out a deep sigh.

"Oh well, mind as well pick up some Milk while you're out there hunting for Mac Ncheese." Genra told the sleepwalkin' and talkin' Ayane as he shoved her out the door while she was still sucking on her thumb, hugging the pillow he had wanted her to sit on.

Obviously, this would be the last time he ever calls Ayane in at 4:30 in the morning.

_**End of Alternate Ending 2!**_

**And here is the updated version of Kasumi's Desertion. Once again I saved over my older version seeing as how I consider this one superior! I've decided to redo all the chapters up to the A Lonely Road chapters to make it coincide better with the story. Hopefully previous readers will catch on, though I plan to place a memo of it during future stories. Again, this story takes place a bit before the events of the Dead or Alive 1 which takes place after the events of Ninja Gaiden on the X-box. So Kasumi is most likely 15 and Ayane is 14 which is probably why they list the two as A/N on the age department, Team Ninja might have realized that it aint politcally correct to oggle minors lol.**

**Saddened Melody-**

**A.K.A** Final-


	3. Chapter 3: Of Caves And Bad Luck

**Edit: Now I'm at the third chapter. Once again, this chapter has been modified simply to add a bit more to the story and make it easier on the eyes. Can't say this chapter has been modified very much though.**

**Disclaimer: _Ah yes, I remember this particular disclaimer. I was sick as a dog the day I wrote this. Anyways, I don't own DOA or any of it's characters, but you can always dream right?_**

**Blossoming Swallowtail**

**Chapter 3: Of Caves and Bad Luck**

"_Eeek!"_

_A couple of loud shrieks pierced throught the otherwise calm and recently rainy day._

"_I **pant** can't **pant** ...believe this!" Kasumi complained as she tried to keep her face dry with one arm while the other one dragged Ayane behind her, who also tried to keep her vision in check from the rain in a vain attempt to watch their step while she held on tightly to Kasumi's hand._

_The day had started off so beautifully too, the blessing of the sun, a cool summer breeze and (nearly)clear blue skies. If someone were to have predicted that a slight rain spell were to have hit, there would be no way to describe how much they would have been ridiculed._

_So it came as quite a dissapointement to both girls when they noticed some clouds had started to obstruct their vision of the clear blue sky, as well as block the warm rays of the sun._

_That dissapointement turned to panic when they found that the sky was now trying to drown the poor children in a torrential flow of water and seeing as how the wind had done nothing but pick up since the small storm had started, both girls found themselves in a bit of a situation._

"_Keep moving Ayane, we gotta find some shelter!" Kasumi shouted back to Ayane, trying to reassure the purple haired child, as well as herself._

_Kasumi and Ayane had once again wandered off somewhere into the forest to do some exploring on their own, they weren't really looking for anything in particular, a few animals here, a flower meadow there and some nice clearings with exquisite views. Basically just heading in any direction that seemed to be of particular interest to the young girls._

_Which proved to be a problem, seeing as how they had strayed quite a ways from the village as well as Ayane's hut._

_Now both were desperatly searching for some kind of refuge to wait for the rain to stop._

_Kasumi was quick to act as it all started, barely even giving the other girl time to react as she grabbed hold of her hand and hauled her in whatever direction she chose. Which just happened to be leading away from the village Ayane noted._

She sighed as they ran, which was pretty difficult. 

"_Onee-san! Don't worry about me! Just go back to the village, I'll be fine!" Ayane cried out to Kasumi. She knew Kasumi well and it wouldn't take a ninja master to tell that the older girl was worried for her friend's safety._

_Had Kasumi been asked, she would not have been able to deny it._

_One, being that Ayane was undertrained._

_  
Two, being that Ayane was still quite young (althought she probably shouldn't talk)_

_Three, being that Ayane's house was more than an hour away from the village and unfortunately, they were at a fair distance from that as well._

_And four...well..._

_  
Kasumi had so many factors there to worry her with, that she couldn't possibly bring herself to consider the possibility of leaving Ayane on her own. So she ignored Ayane's pleas, instead, Kasumi stopped and quickly scanned the area, her grip on Ayane's hand strenghtened by her resolve._

_Ayane worried, they had been out in the rain for nearly 15 minutes now and their clothes were thoroughly soaked. She feared that if Kasumi continued to be so pig headed about her role as the eldest, that both of them would come down with a cold rather than just herself and frankly, she wasn't selfish enough to want Kasumi to suffer the same fate as her (besides, it would only be a cold after all, Ayane suffered throught quite a few of those seeing as how her little hut wasn't exactly made for rainy days) but she was brutally pulled away from those thoughts as Kasumi once again dragged her off into some unknown direction like some kind of rag doll._

_Kasumi smiled triumphantly as she lead Ayane into a small cave that was located not too far from a waterfall both girls had found earlier. She hadn't spotted it on the first few laps because of the rain, but for now that didn't really matter. All that mattered was that they now had a place to wait for the bad weather spell to pass._

_Ayane on the other hand, was a little more pensive about the matter. They may have gotten out of the rain and all, but they had already gotten their own fill of rainwater, their clothes offered little warmth now and without some quick actions, either girl could come down with a serious case of hypothermia._

_So she got to work._

_Kasumi stared at the water as it fell from the sky, the cold winds blowing once and a while in the deeper part of the cave where she and Ayane currently were. "Brrr..." Kasumi started to shiver, the feeling of the wet clothing on her smooth skin starting to affect her. Apparently the running she had done had helped her keep her mind off the cold, but now that she was idle, realisation had hit her in one of the most uncomfortable ways possible. She rubbed the sides of her arms and hugged herself, trying to keep warm while looking outside (the cave wasn't that deep upon further inspection), she was starting to wonder if the rain would ever come to an end when she heard a strange sound originate from where Ayane was supposed to be sitting.  
_

_**TCHHHK!**_

_  
"H-hey...w-what are -you doing?" Kasumi asked while trying to keep her chattering teeth under control._

Ayane ignored Kasumi, whatever she was doing, it seemed to require her undivided attention. Kasumi took a closer look, "Hmm?" Kasumi wondered but it didn't take long for her to figure out what Ayane was doing.

_Ayane put the small piece of flint she had been carrying in a pouch on her belt away and took a close look at the small ember that had started to burn a tiny red circle into a piece of clothing, something she had ripped off her yukata and dried up as best as she could upon entering the cave for this very purpose._

_Kasumi watched attentively as Ayane continued and the more Ayane went, the more Kasumi's eyes shone brighter and brighter with both pride and excitement._

"Phfew..." Ayane let out a small sigh as she wiped her brow, making a fire was always very stressful, getting a fire started meant having to follow the correct steps precisely all while being careful not to--

"_Eeep!" Ayane cried out as she was suddenly pounced on by Kasumi._

"Waaah! Sugoi! Ayane that was amazing!" 

_Ayane squirmed uncomfortably under Kasumi, blushing as she complained and tried to get out from under the overexcited Kasumi. _

"_Kasumi Oneeeee—saaaaaaannnnn...get off!" _

_Kasumi pouted and got off, allowing Ayane to get back up and recover from her flush of embarrasement._

_Ayane and Kasumi approached the fire, which was going along rather nicely thanks to some dry branches Ayane had found a little earlier in the cave (she guessed that they weren't the first ones to use this cave to get out of the rain). The two stayed close together, in hopes of sharing their body warmth with one another along with the fire's heat until the rain let up._

"_So...when did you learn to do that?" Kasumi asked softly, curious about Ayane's know-how._

_Ayane thought about it, "My uncle's friend Genra taught me how." she stated, turning her gaze towards the fire as she poked at some of the flames with a stick. _

_  
"Genra?" the name seemed to ring a bell in Kasumi's mind, though she didn't really remember from where. _

"_Yeah. He comes to visit my uncle from time to time. He's nice." Ayane smiled fondly at the thought of the middle aged man, who seemed to think highly of her._

"_So why did he teach you?" Kasumi asked, noticing that the conversation seemed to take their minds off the lousy weather outside._

"_Well...he told me, that as people, the earlier we learn, the more time we have to put these skills to good use.", Ayane paused and thought about it, "So while most ninjas learn these kinds of skills later on in their lives, i'll already have the experience in their use by the time I get to that point in my life I guess..." Ayane answered with a smile._

_Kasumi gave her young friend another smothering hug._

"_Onee-saaannn..." Ayane stammered, "You're embarrising meeee!" she then wailed with a slight blush while flailing her arms around, trying to get out of Kasumi's grasp. Sure she was aware that she was the youngest, but she could only take so much coddling, then again with Kasumi around, she probably should have gotten used to it by now._

"_Awww...Ayane-chan! You're sooo smart! Where would I be without you anyways?" Kasumi squealed while she cuddled Ayane in her arms. _

_Ayane sighed and simply let herself be played around with, it was kinda hard to contradict Kasumi when she got this way._

"_So tell me, what else did he teach you?" Kasumi asked, her eyes brimming with curiosity._

Ayane flashed Kasumi a pride filled look which mixed admirably with the blush that had formed on her face due to Kasumi's affection. It was the first time that she could prove herself to be better than Kasumi at something and to be perfectly honest, she enjoyed knowing that now, she could somehow repay Kasumi for some of the minor ninjutsu lessons she gave her.

"_Well..."_

Kasumi groaned, it was as if Kami had found it to be a fit punishment for her to be constantly reminded of her purple haired little nuisance these days.

It was by sheer coincidence that Kasumi had stopped by a small cave, similar to the one Ayane and herself had stopped by so many years ago, after gaining atleast a days distance from her old home during the night. She hadn't slept a wink during the whole ordeal and she was starting to get tired of running, seeing as how it was all she did during the night.

So she decided to take a rest, not really to sleep, seeing as how she was still far from danger out here, but merely to rest up a slight bit and have a bite to eat.

"Now...I just blow on it gently..." Kasumi muttered softly to herself as she got down on her knees and as close to the small embers she had created as possible while putting her piece of flint back into her bag of provisions and blew gently on the budding flame, trying to encourage the fire to burn.

One could argue that this method wouldn't really be necessary if she would have just brought some matches along, but it was amazing how hard it was to find matches back home, after all, she was sure any random person who felt like burning down her 80 wood(and 5 paper and 15 misc) home down to the ground would feel really dissapointed at the lack of matches to aid in turning her previous home into a blazing inferno.

"Oh good lord...I'm being sarcastic with myself..." Kasumi groaned, her lack of sleep was giving her a sour disposition. She never realized how much sleep was necessary before this very moment...

It was amazing how much experience could teach a person.

She quickly attended to the fire once again, trying to get her mind off her intense desire to join dreamland. She hated to admit it, but it was kinda reasurring to know that she could always fall back on the knowledge Ayane had shared with her during their friendship together to get her out of small problems like this.

A soft smile fell upon Kasumi's face as she gave those fond memories some more thought.

That is, until a certain memory dared to show itself to her... Kasumi rubbed one of her eyes, something was obstructing her vision.

She had no intention of letting the past haunt her.

"Hmph..." Kasumi's eye twitched as she quickly dismissed the thoughts.

**End of Chapter 3**

_**You unlocked Alternate ending 3!**_

"Now...I just blow on it gently..." Kasumi muttered softly to herself as she got down on her knees and as close to the small embers she had created as possible while putting her piece of flint back into her bag of provisions and blew gently on the budding flame, trying to encourage the fire to burn.

One could argue that this method wouldn't really be necessary if she would have just brought some matches along, but it was amazing how hard it was to find matches back home, after all, she was sure any random person who felt like burning down her 80 wood(and 5 paper and 15 misc) home down to the ground would feel really dissapointed at the lack of matches to aid in the ruining of her wealthy family's memories and lives.

"Oh god...I'm being sarcastic with myself..." Kasumi groaned, she never realized how much sleep was necessary before this very moment. It was amazing how much experience could teach a person.

"You know talking to yourself really isn't healthy..." a voice called out to Kasumi.

"Yeah...I guess you're right." she replied, not paying much mind to whatever it was she was doing.

"That might be a mark of insanity ya know?" the voice added.

"Eh? Really?" Kasumi asked, wondering if she might be going crazy or something.

"Sure it is, just ask that pink bunny over there!" the mysterious voice said, pointing towards a pink rabbit that seemed to just pop out of nowhere.

Somehow, Kasumi followed the mysterious voice's finger to the bunny's location and she asked "Am I going crazy?"

"O' couse' not lassy! You'se as right as rain in my book! Aye!" the bunny replied in some kind of perverted mix of scottish and pirate talk.

"The bunny says i'm ok..." Kasumi replied nonchantly to the mysterious voice.

Kasumi continued on like this, stuck on the subject of her own sanity with her own mysterious little alter-egos (which were infact, herself, as you could guess) she failed to realise that the fire had finally started up and was now carefully traveling up the stick she was using to poke the fire with while she just sat there, in a daze, drooling ever so slightly.

Which just proves, sleep is very important. Unless you want to start talking to mysterious voices and hallucinate pink bunnies, get plenty of it.

_**End of Alternate Ending 3!**_

**Ah, the end of another chapter. Hopefully, I got the mood of this chapter just right seeing as how Kasumi wasn't really all there near the end of it (yep, not sleeping can make you a really cranky person). If you have a problem with this chapter, let me know ok? Once again, I saved over the older one but I can probably recall the modifications seeing as how they tend to be more noticeable.**

**Now then, I shall start work on my other chapters as well.**

**Don't forget to review on your way out if you want this fic to keep going ok? I'm not much for actually making an effort without motivation (translation : I'm lazy, poke me with enough reviews and i'll write more chapters).**

Sayonara

**-Saddened Melody**

**A.K.A Final**


	4. Chapter 4: Reasons

**Edit : Reposting of Chapter 4, much like the other chapters this chapter has been modified to follow the overall feel starting from the Lonely Road Chapters, some spelling mistakes here, a little more vocabulary there, nothing incredible. I gotta say, fixing these chapters up isn't the boring task I'd thought it would have been. Loads of fun really.**

**As I recall, at this point I noticed that Maveriq and Dynamic Tenshi were becoming somewhat of regular reviewers for my story and I'd like to thank them for that. Maveriq always takes the time to look into the deeper meanings I sometimes try to put into my story and I'm glad someone takes the time to notice them and Tenshi may be a little scary for a kid but I'm happy to see that despite the "tame" nature of this fic, she still takes the time to read and review my story I should probably do the same sometime soon.**

**Disclaimer:I got used to writing these on the day I wrote this chapter, also, this was the first new chapter that I had wrote since starting this story months ago in one of my...oh crap...what was it in english again? _Cahiers..._urm...Ah! Notebooks! Yeah that's right, so this one took me a little longer to do...since I stopped writing in that notebook after chapter 3. Anyways, I don't own Dead or Alive or any of it's characters though if I did i'd probably make Kasumi and Ayane get along dammit!**

**Blossoming Swallowtail**

**Chapter 4: Reasons**

_The realm of dreams, a land where people sought to join whenever their tired minds and bodies needed rest. A place that had been for so many years, the object of many artists' inspirations as well as many scientists' fascinations due to it's unpredictable and mysterious nature._

A land that could show great happyness.

_  
A land that could show great pain._

_A land that now had one more visitor within it's mists._

_Kasumi looked around at her surroundings. Once again, like so many nights past, she was back home._

_The moonlight shone brightly tonight, only a few clouds daring to come between it and the earth. It wasn't cold...yet, something caused her to shiver._

_She hugged herself, trying to warm her body. Dreams were not supposed to be like this...in them, the viewer was not obliged by the natural laws of the world. But deep down, Kasumi knew this was no dream...it was something she had long accepted but that continued to haunt her all the same._

_Kasumi looked down at the ground, where she spotted a few traces of coloured dirt differenciating itself from it's lighter soil._

_Another spot formed. She knew what they were._

_Her own tears._

_She reached up to her face and stroked it gently. Her face felt flushed and her skin was still moist._

The sign that she had done a lot of crying without even realising it. 

_One more spot formed._

Kasumi tried to wipe them off her face but knew that she wasn't done shedding tears, if this dream was the same as all the rest, then more tears were sure to come.

_She started to approach the gate._

_She knew what her dream had instore for her waited there._

_Kasumi slowly stepped up and looked through the gate._

_From where she was, Kasumi noticed two young girls. One had a considerable head start over the other one, while the second girl tried to make up for it by running up to the other one._

"_Ayane! Ayane! Wait for me!" the girl who ran yelled to the other one. Trying to catch her attention._

_The other girl didn't react and kept walking._

_Kasumi watched quietly as the scene unfurled._

_Ayane finally stopped when her Kasumi's younger self finally caught up to the future Hajin Mon Ninja, Kasumi blocking her way. She took a moment to catch her breath and questionned her "W-why...why didn't you stop? Didn't you hear me?"_

"_..."_

"_Ayane...?"_

"_..."  
_

_Kasumi felt a slight pain to her heart as she witnessed the younger girl's silence, knowing well the reason behind it. _

_She took a look at the eyes of her younger self. Her eyes were red, her face flushed as well, obviously, she had done her fair share of crying too._

_The younger Kasumi gazed at Ayane for the longest of times, but the younger girl just stared at the ground. _

_Concerned, Kasumi put her hands on Ayane's shoulders._

"_Ayane...?"._

Ayane's faced lifted up to meet hers...

_And she uttered only three words, her eyes still veiled behind the bands of her bright purple hair._

"_I hate you..."_

Kasumi awoke with a gasp at the sudden jab that the memory inflicted on her.

"Again..." she said while looking down at her knees, which she hugged in an effort to console herself. That was a memory she didn't need to be re-living and especially not at this point in her life. She had come to terms with what happened between her and Ayane years ago...or so she thought. So why was she having these drea-- no, why were these memories resurfacing? Now? Of all times?

She surveilled her surroundings just once to make sure that no one was nearby and then took a deep breath when she realised that she was alone.

"No one..." she mumbled to herself, still suffering from a bit of fatigue from her actions earlier that morning.

She tried to forget about what memories her sleep stirred.

Alone, that was a good thing, she thought to herself, that's how she needed it to be right now. Far from her friends and family to carry out her mission. A mission that required all of her focus and that she would not stray from no matter what the cost.

Vengeance.

Her saddened look from the memory that she had just awokened from changed to a solemn look.

She wiped the burning from her eyes away.

The How and When were still unclear for the moment but to her, the Why and Who were all to easely answered whenever she closed her eyes and imagined her brother in bed, still suffering from his near fatal injuries.

Raidou.

What he did to Hayate...he would have to pay for that with his life and only when Kasumi had felt that that foul excuse for a man was burning in hell for what he did, then she would be able to think about what would be left of her future.

She let out a sigh, so at the moment, having no place to live and very little to eat was not that much of a serious problem.

Althought sleeping on a tree branch was just a little uncomfortable.

She guessed it must have been around 5 in the afternoon at the time, judging from the sun's position in the sky. After that little episode in the cavern this morning (up to you to decide which one), she decided to advance just a little bit more before taking a real rest before nightfall, which was certainly a much better choice than running around in the middle of the day.

She leaned back on the large tree she had found rest in and wondered...wondered why she had allowed that purple haired kunoichi to cloud her thoughts recently.

It was obvious that Ayane absolutely hated her with a passion, althought why she did so, Kasumi might never know. Ayane had just...confronted her one day and that was it, a year's friendship had been ended with only three words.

"_I hate you!"_

Kasumi cringed, her face sunk behind her knees as she pulled them in even closer to her body, the sound of Ayane's younger self echoeing throught her mind.

What had she done to deserve such cruel words at such an age anyways? She had thought of Ayane as a younger sister and loved her as such and yet...

Ayane had found it fit to break her heart and trust within less than 3 seconds.

She couldn't think of any kind of ninjutsu technique that could inflict that much pain in so little time, that would not eventually be healed by the passage of time.

And if any such technique existed, she did best not to learn it.

Then again...part of her had a pretty good idea why Ayane would suddenly develop such a hatred in regards to her...

"_It's a promise!"_

She decided to set the memory aside, fearing more pain.

Kasumi had already made quite some distance as she could tell. Tokyo was within eyesight( which is relative considering Kasumi's eyesight was much more superior to a normal human's) but wondered what she would do without some kind of disguise to veil her presence to prying eyes. She knew perfectly well that she'd stick out like some kind of fish out of water.

Another problem arose, she had no where to go and it was nearly dark out, despite looking and acting like day and night were no different, Kasumi was aware that it could get somewhat dangerous for a girl her age to wander around...at night...while searching for somewhere to stay...in her current outfit(Costume 1 in Dead or Alive Ultimate...basicly her usual blue outfit)...in Tokyo.

She didn't feel like hurting anyone right now.

So she stuck to her tree for now, she would think of a solution later...so until then she would have to return to her childhood dreams...

**Meanwhile...**

"Hmm...never thought little Miss Perfect would have ever gone for it." Ayane thought to herself as she hitched a ride on a passing bus, laying down low as not to be seen by passing cars as it headed towards the city.

It had been a while since she received news of Kasumi's betrayal of clan laws, Ayane had prepared herself well during that time, kunais, check, shurikens, check, smokebombs, check, lunch, check, toothbrush, check.

You name it and it was all neatly tucked in on a small bag on her back.

This bus served as her ride for the moment simply because she didn't really feel like wasting her time running around like a fool like those other ninjas while they searched for Kasumi's whereabouts.

"My guess is that she will probably head towards Tokyo, what better place to get lost in than a huge crowd riddled with people." Ayane thought to herself as she stared at the passing sky.

Also, she had some of the other ninjas looking around for her. So she had no real need to join in the menial task.

Ayane had been informed that Kasumi would most likely try and find Raidou, seeing as how that was pretty much the only thing the clan had ever refused to let her do that was worth the effort and risk of becoming a runaway.

Hmm...Raidou...

Ayane smirked.

Oh how she hoped to stop Kasumi before hand so she could take him out herself as a welcome bonus. That man was the reason why Hayate was in a such a lousy state, maybe destined to live out the rest of his days in bed...well, that was part of the reason why she'd love to take him out.

Another might be something along the lines of family issues...

Ayane didn't want to dig any deeper than that.

"Darn it!" She cursed, maybe she didn't give Kasumi enough credit. Maybe there was more up there (besides the obvious) than she originally thought since now Kasumi had the freedom to take out Raidou without having to be binded to the clan anymore.

Althought, with the current situation, now Ayane had that possibility too and even moreso since she didn't need to fear retribution from the clan...

Ayane smiled, all Kasumi had managed to get was a head start.

"Oh right..." she thought about it, technically, she was supposed to only get Kasumi and bring her back DOA (which didn't make much sense since Kasumi's dead either way, one is just a little later) but to her, Kasumi's action acted as a way to kill two birds with one stone.

She wouldn't mind at all taking out that bouncy bimbo while handling her little family issues at the same time.

After all, traitors always get what is coming to them.

Kasumi has just been delaying for 7 years.

**End of Chapter 4**

_**You unlocked Alternate ending 4!**_

"Darn it!" She cursed, maybe she didn't give Kasumi enough credit. Maybe there was more up there (besides the obvious) than she originally thought since now Kasumi had the freedom to take out Raidou without having to be binded to the clan anymore.

Ayane glanced downwards, "Althought..." she thought as she saw it was nearly impossible for her to spot her own feet because of her own...womanly features.

Ayane wondered how she even managed to stand up let alone keep her favorite outfit (Ayane's typical C2 outfit in DOA Ultimate, with the bow and short skirt and low top) on without showing more than she would like...

Ayane started to even doubt that the cars passing next to the bus were not able to see her because of these!

"Kasumi had better not bring up a stupid 'You're all grown up!' type joke on me before I kill her or I'll never live it down..." Ayane thought full of melancholy.

Then a thought came to her, "Why **do **I wear such skimpy clothing anyways?"

Another thought came to her, "Last time I checked...Kasumi wears things like this too..."

"Oh my god..." The final thought that came to Ayane's mind made her sit up straight with shock as she recalled who clothed both of them.

"Our elders are perverts!" she screamed to herself, her eyes swirling lightly at the thought that it was the clan elders(all old people as you can guess) who chose their battle attire and thus, they wanted the two to bounce around...alot.

"NOOOO! I'VE BECOME FAN SERVICE FODDER!" she yelled out loudly, then falling into a fit of curses at her own naivety.

Meanwhile, everyone who was on the bus stared at the ceiling, wondering who the heck was up there and what was their deal.

Althought they stopped caring once Ayane shut up.

This was Japan after all, all kinds of crazy things happen here on a regular basis. Nothing unusual about a teen hitching a a litteral ride on the bus...

_**End of Alternate Ending 4!**_

**And here you have it, my 4th chapter digitally remastered with better special effects and acting! Lol, anyways, I'll get to work on the next chapter so I can finally start work on my 7th chapter. Hope you enjoyed my longer dream sequence.**

**See ya.**

_-_**Saddened Melody**

**A.K.A Final**


	5. Chapter 5: A lonely road Part1

_Well this is my 5th chapter. So instead of talking about my personnal life how about I explain a few things from previous chapters?_

_Okay! For one thing, that little dream sequence that Kasumi has during the last chapter (yeah it was really short) is just that, nothing but a small dream. It contains what Kasumi considers to be a very traumatizing event and isn't the whole memory. That'll be handled a little later on!_

_So don't worry, you'll get your answers soon enough!_

_Second, Kasumi's personnality wavers from time to time but i'm sticking to the fact that Kasumi actually dislikes Ayane at this point in the story. The only time she shows that she might want to make up with her(chapter 4) is just a side of effect of all that reflecting on Ayane but don't worry, they will eventually talk one to another in the present. And we'll see what happens then._

_Third, unless you didn't figure it out. Ayane used to call Kasumi Onee-san (which I believe is something like big sister) but I keep putting in a "" simply because from what I can tell, lots of japanese children call those who are elder than them big brother or big sister even if they aren't related. Even when Kasumi mentions her "sibling" when she's younger, those little apostrophies pop up so I'm not straying from the official Tecmo story. If you don't get why I'm explaining this, then figure it out!_

_Now for my review replies._

_Dynamic tenshi- Well just for that you have been upgraded to 4th scariest person on my list of scary people. And for the record, I'm a guy, not a girl. And i'm 17 so I go to Cegep (like college for those who don't know) and I have a lot of school work to do generally, which is why I can't really post oftenly. Althought lately I seem to have a lot of free time on my hands because my school is on strike. And if this story gets far enough, I'll be doing DOAX as well so you'll get your kinkyness from that heh heh. And once again for the record, you're one scary kid._

_Maveriq- NOOOO! You must tell what you think it wrong! Or else i'll go insane from curiosity! And yes that last thing Ayane says during my last chapter is meant to give a little bit of a hint of what I think happened between Ayane and Kasumi. Heheh, it sounds kind of mysterious but i'm sure you'll understand later on what happens before I even post the chapter! You're a smart dude._

_Johnny H.- Yep we all know the poor girl is fan service fodder, but we aint gonna complain! And thanks for saying that, I'm trying hard to get the story to fit properly with the actual storyline of the real game and I just wanna take a stab at what all the fans of DOA were waiting for about Kasumi and Ayane's storyline when DOAU came out. Twas quite a dissapointment but it'll help the story out a bit._

_Anyways, without further interruption, here's my 5th chapter!_

**Disclaimer:**_I don't own DOA or any of it's characters. Tecmo does._

_I own Kirami thought but don't worry, I hate original characters as much as the next person, she definitly won't have a big part in the plot. I also own the waiter!_

**Blossoming Swallowtail**

**Chapter 5**

Kasumi let out the longest sigh anyone could have possibly heard as she strolled down a REALLY long and somehow straight road. Tree, rock, tree, bush, tree, squirrel, tree...you get the picture. Walking down with such uneventful scenery would prove to be a quick stab to any normal person's psyche.

"Why me?" she asked to the reddening sky above her.

A few hours had passed since her little catnap up a tree and now the sunset started to announce that a new night was about to begin.

Kasumi had slept in.

In a tree.

Needless to say, Kasumi felt like a complete and total fool for doing such a thing. But that wasn't the worst of it.

On top of having slept for more time than she would have liked. She had fallen asleep in a position that had proven to be very poor for resting her legs up for the kind of activities a ninja needs to fufill.

In other words, her legs were killing her.

Well, in total honesty, it wasn't incredibly bad seeing as how she could still walk just fine and she felt that if she needed to, she would be able to atleast sprint and move around enough to defend herself. Unfortunately, running and or jumping from tree to tree to reach the closest city to the Mugen Tenshin Territory was out of the question. So she walked.

"How embarrising" she complained in a tone filled with melancholy at her fate. A ninja should be the very image of perfect physical shape, after all, a ninja's life was mostly training in dangerous arts that required a sound mind as well as a fit body to be able to perform to one's fullest capabilities.

She liked to think that she had reached such a perfect physical shape.

A little bit of chi here and some ninpo techniques there, with that a ninja could do things normal humans could only dream of. Kasumi found consolation in that fact as she tried to speed up her walk.

Bad idea.

"OWWWWwwwwww...!" Kasumi groaned loudly as she felt the full weight of her legs' complaints and fell to the ground.

The fact that she was now forced to simply walk like a normal 15 year old girl simply because she had neglected to rest in a proper position was as if someone had taken her pride and placed it infront of a firing squad.

That and her schoolgirl outfit seemed to be even smaller than she remembered. "Especially tight around my..." Kasumi sighed as she looked down at the dark blue sailor outfit.

Since she was now walking on the ground like a mere mortal rather than jumping around stealthily in the typical ninja fashion. She thought it would be a good idea to simply put on her "normal" set of clothing so as not to look...out of place.

"Althought..." she thought, "This is Japan after all." Kasumi noted.

In her mind that meant that out of the ordinary was a difficult thing to do.

She frowned as she came to realise that maybe the schoolgirl outfit would attract just as much attention as her combat attire here than anywhere else. Maybe she should have brought another change of clothing instead? Maybe a sweater or a jacket for the cold weather, walking around in a blanket seemed kind of dumb if she ever felt cold (which was surprisingly not very often, despite the lack of modesty of her favorite fighting outfit (C1 DOAU, her basic blue outfit).

"I didn't realise that becoming a runaway shinobi would be so...mundane" she said to herself, finally realising that she was once again, talking to herself. Which probably wasn't too healthy especially after the last time.

But she had to admit, this was boring so far. Wasn't the life of a Runaway supposed to be filled with danger, adventure and the rest? It was as if the ninjas from back at her old clan were all off on vacation or something. She was sure that she would have faced atleast one squad of lesser ninjas by lunch time.

Normally such thoughts would have been met with confused looks, after all, what kind of girl would actually be hoping for a squad of ninjas to come around and try to kill her at any given time?

A very bored one.

Kasumi's thoughts were interupted as she suddenly felt a low rumble coming from down the road. She turned her head to get a better look without really stopping. It was most likely another car.

She came to realise that when you're walking on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, people just seemed to want to avoid you.

She'd hear a car.

The car would speed up and go right by her without so much as slowing down.(Unless it was filled with a bunch of hentais, then they'd slow down, whistle at her and speed away before she could retaliate with a fitting punishment)

And she'd be left alone, again.

The rumbling got louder and louder and soon enough, Kasumi was clearly able to see the cause of the sound.

Now Kasumi didn't really know much about motorcycles, but even to her, this bike looked much bigger than your typical motorcycle.

On it was a behemoth of a man. He was huge from what Kasumi could see and evaluate from the distance between her and him. He also looked much different than the people she had seen before on this road. He looked like a foreigner.

"Hmm..." Kasumi wondered as tried to guess from which country the man could have hailed from but soon found that she might have been giving this a little bit too much thought.

Kasumi kept walking with the intention of ignoring the motorcycle man much like she tried to ignore the rest of those who passed by her but soon found that that might be difficult as the giant chopper started to slow down until it came to a complete halt right a little bit infront of her.

The scruffy looking man pulled off his sunglasses and with a low rumbling voice akin to a bear growl he asked "**Need a lift missy**?"

...**Scene switch**...

"The Dead Or Alive tournament?"

Ayane questionned while adjusting her bandanna, glancing from time to time in her hand glass to make sure it was tied just right. She pouted her lips a little and blinked a few times to make sure everything was in order.

"Perfect" she said out loud, while using the mirror to gauge her informant's reaction.

Her informant rolled her eyes. She never did like that purple haired narcissistic bitch...but unfortunately for her, Ayane was in charge of this mission and represented the entire HajinMon Clan which meant that this lesser ninja had to obey her orders.

Ayane caught sight of her informant's action but she decided to let it slide, besides, she was actually doing it on purpose to annoy the ambitious little kunoichi. Much like her informant didn't like her, she wasn't particularily fond of her informant either.

Thing is, she wasn't very fond of anyone in her clan, besides Genra of course.

And they all hated her guts.

So she did her best to keep their faces down and close to the ground to show them who was boss. 

"So there isn't any real point to trying to make friends with them" Ayane thought, they were all annoyed by the fact that Ayane, despite her blood, had nearly risen to the top of the HajinMon Clan's ranks ever since her admittance under Genra's recommendation at the age of 8.

Oh she tried to make friends with them at first, but it didn't take long for her to figure out that none of the other children wanted anything to do with her...

"Bad memories" she thought to herself as she glared at the informant, Kirami.

Kirami glared back at Ayane as she took a sip from her cup of tea.

A waiter came by to refill Ayane's glass of grape juice.

"So Raidou is working for DOATEC I suppose?" Ayane asked in a rhetorical fashion, taking a big gulp from her drink and mildly annoyed by the fact that Kirami had stopped talking. She needed more information if she was to find Kasumi's whereabouts...as well as Raidou's.

Kirami nodded, "The MugenTenshin Clan's sources tell us that your fath...(Kirami's stopped as she noticed that Ayane shot her a glare that just screamed homicide) Raidou, is not so much working for DOATEC but is allowing DOATEC to use his body for their own needs in exchange for more power. Well, that's what we're supposing..."

"I could have told you myself that that is what he was after. You people are useless." Ayane simply stated, taking another quick drink from her glass and then ordering another refill.

Kirami tightened her hands into fists but kept her outer composure calm to remain civil. She pressed on, "The tournament will take place in a week. To enter the tournament thought, you need to have a direct invitation from the chairman of the Dead or Alive Tournament Executive committee."

"Did you manage to get me invited?" Ayane asked simply, she knew the answer.

"It was more...difficult than anticipated. The chairman had already sent out his invitations weeks ago and taking one from another fighter is useless because the invitations are specifique to those they belong to." Kirami answered, trying her best not to look like an idiot infront of Ayane for not being able to snag one of those invitations.

Ayane surprised her by saying "That's alright, if our clan's combined force couldn't get one lousy invitation than that just means Kasumi will most likely suffer from the same difficulties as us. Raidou is a difficult man to get a hold of, participating in the tournament would be the only way for Kasumi to get close enough to Raidou to eliminate him. So I'm guessing that DOATEC is the best place to start poking around to find her."

She took a taste from her ice cream and stuck out her tongue, "This stuff tastes horrible" she pointed out much like a child.

This was what Kirami hated above all else about Ayane. The way Ayane would sometimes simply act like a complete and utter infant complete with false innocence and devoid of any respect for her elders even after bringing out the worst possible insults she could toss out.

"Still...I wouldn't underestimate the little princess' dumb luck for a minute. Knowing her, the solution to her problems just fell right out of the sky and into her lap." Ayane added, pushing the ice cream away. She got up and got ready to leave.

But before she left, she felt like she had to ask this. "Before I leave, did any of you flunkies spot her yet?" she asked without bothering to look in Kirami's direction, as if she found anything else to be much more interesting.

Kirami felt as if each and every insult from Ayane's part were about to come out the wrong way, "She's in command right now...she's in command..." Kirami repeated to herself as a sort of mind chant.

She couldn't let her feelings of total HATE for the girl infront of her mislead her...

But she couldn't help it.

"No, we haven't." she lied.

"Good, I plan to deal with her myself so until the next time we meet, DON'T touch her." Ayane threatened as she left the table and eventually, the restaurant they had met in.

As soon as Ayane was out of sight Kirami let out a loud sigh in relief, Kirami hadn't exactly planned this from the start, she knew exactly where Kasumi was at the moment, their operatives had spotted her not too long before she was to meet with Ayane and technically, she WAS suppose to tell her but an oppurtunity to show up Ayane was too good to pass up.

Kirami twirled a small spoon around in her cup of green tea as she thought. "If I can eliminate Kasumi before Ayane does..."

It wouldn't really go against the rules of the clan since pretty much everyone was advised to kill Kasumi on sight. Her operatives didn't do it since it was an order from Ayane and they were a lot more...shall we say, loyal than she was.

All she had to do was go and eliminate Kasumi herself.

And by the time Ayane realised that the deed had been done, it would be already too late...

"Or so she thinks..." Ayane thought as she continued on to her new location. She had an appointment with the DOATEC after all.

Ayane never did like that ambitious little kunoichi and much less trusted her. But for now what Kirami did mattered not to Ayane.

She snickered, "I hope Kasumi goes easy on the stupid fool, I'd like to teach that girl a lesson myself a little later."

**End of Chapter 5**

_**You unlocked Alternate ending 5!**_

Before she left, Ayane felt as if she needed to ask this. "Before I leave, did any of you flunkies spot her yet?" she asked without bothering to look in Kirami's direction, as if she found anything else to be much more interesting.

Kirami felt as if each and every insult from Ayane's part were about to come out the wrong way, "She's in command right now...she's in command..." Kirami repeated to herself as a sort of mind chant.

She couldn't let her feelings of total HATE for the girl infront of her mislead her...

But she couldn't help it.

"No, we haven't." she lied.

"Good, I plan to deal with her myself so until the next time we meet, DON'T touch her." Ayane threatened as she left the table and eventually, the restaurant they had met in.

Ayane stepped out and stopped.

As Ayane glanced out she couldn't help but notice a certain amount of leers coming from all those around her. She took a good look around, old men, young men...even women. They were all staring at her for some odd reason...

"Ugh..." Ayane growled as she noticed what was the true object of their attention.

Her favorite purple outfit was known for being really...low cut. Apparently her fans were taking a good long look at her features.

Technically known as breast.

Ayane balled her hands into fists as she counted to 10 to prevent herself from killing them all with a few well placed kunais. "Keep your calm...don't kill them...there are witnesses..." she said throught gritted teeth.

Maybe wearing this thing to go meet with Kirami wasn't her best idea yet.

A man started walking up to her with a sly grin on his face, "Heeeyyy bab" he started before Ayane quickly cut in with a simple word "Jailbait"

He quickly took a long look around at all the other people and quickly backed off.

Meanwhile inside the restaurant, Kirami was reciting some of her more favorite words(all words she used to describe Ayane when she wasn't around to listen) while thinking about said girl as she washed dishes.

Apparently Ayane left Kirami with the huge bill she had created from all those refills.

"I hate you Ayan" Kirami started mumbling but was interrupted as the manager tossed a rag at her head and told her "Less self-monologing, more scrubbing!"

_**End of Alternate Ending 5!**_

_Well well, things seem to be falling into place for both girls. Ayane now knows about the DOA tournament but what will she do with that knowledge? What is DOATEC's interest in Raidou? Who did Kasumi just meet (as if you guys don't know) and can he be trusted? And what can Kirami's plan to take out Kasumi do to affect it all?_

_Obviously i'll explain most of these next chapter._

Now I shall beg for forgiveness for bringing in an OC character into the mix. To be completely honest, I hate original characters and especially self-insertion in stories but I felt it was necessary for the story. Kirami is just your basic disloyal girl who wants to be in Ayane's position and who thinks Ayane is basicly trash. She hates her with a passion yata-yata and tends to do self monologues once and a while.

Kirami isn't really an important character and she will most likely never be so I didn't really bother to give a description but i'll give you people an idea.

She has black hair, brown eyes, a lousy personnality and she's 17. And seeing as how this is the DOA universe, she's a total ninja babe. Lol  


_That should be enough. Don't get attached to her._

_  
By the way, I always try to improve on my writing skills so if any of you notice that i'm lacking something or might think i'm getting a little lazy on certain points then don't hesitate to tell me. I'd really appreciate it if it can help me improve on my writing skills._

_Anyways, till next chapter. Don't forget to read and review as you leave!_


	6. Chapter 6: A lonely road Part2

_I'll (try to) make this quick and simple, sorry for being late on this chapter but i've had to wrap my head around a hell of a lot of things lately and it's getting to me. Oh and sorry Maveriq! Didn't mean to forget about ya!_

_To Dynamic Tenshi: You obviously need to go visit or if you haven't already done that lol. And yeah, I predicted that I would be a little messed up these days so I posted it a little earlier thanks to the free time my student strike provided. As for the part where Ayane jumps on Kasumi...what tells you it aint gonna be the other way around! This story might become a shoujo-ai at some point don't forget, I just have to get a whole lot of different reviews asking for it. Must please the fans. And to me, anyone who is younger than 15 is refered to as being a "kid", being sex crazed doesn't change that!_

_To Johnny: Don't worry, Bass won't become a major player. Kasumi will be a solitary girl just like the game says she is but she has to meet some of the other DOA contestants for it to fit with the story and for her to get her "few clues" that the DOA1 instruction booklet refers to. I get most of my ideas for how the DOA storyline works from the booklets and subtle references in the game (only official sources anyways) and this story is meant to be a kind of chronicle of the DOA storyline with Kasumi and Ayane as the main characters. But beyond that, it's also supposed to be an interpretation on Kasumi and Ayane's relationship in the past and in the present with a bit of tilting in the fans favor a little later on. If you know what I mean._

_Maveriq: Damn! How did I not see your review! Everytime I looked at the fanfiction reviews all I saw was Johnny's and Tenshi's...and I was wondering "Hey...where's Maveriq's review?..." how odd. Your reviews are always the best! Thanks for complimenting me on Ayane and Kasumi, to tell the truth I love them both (even though I'm more of an Ayane player) and I never though either of them were ever really bad. Though i'll admit I used to hate Kasumi in the same typical fashion that most Ayane users do, I got over it though when I learnt how to use her. Oh and as for Kirami, she's is your typical teenager and Ayane brings out the worst in people amazingly enough so of course Kirami got majorly annoyed but lol in this chapter even Kirami finds that Ayane's little nuisance technique is quite amusing._

**Disclaimer:**_I don't own DOA or any of it's characters, I do however own the Hajin Mon Ninja Kirami but that's pretty much it and I don't own Red Ninja either and it's not as bad as everyone says it is, give it a rental, I liked it. _

**Blossoming Swallowtail**

**Chapter 6**

Ah. The great open road. The feeling of absolute freedom as your vehicule races down the vacant countryside, accompanied only by the soft (you eventually refer to the sound as such after your ears start to deafen) purr of the motor while it cuts throught the air with it's melody and the gentle wind currents whom bring great comfort on hot summer nights such as this. There's nothing quite like it.

Kasumi had to admit that she could get used to this.

It sure beat walking.

"So kid, what's your name!" the man who had been kind enough to give her a lift yelled out, most likely fearing that his voice might be drowned out by the motorcycle's roar.

"I believe it'd be more appropriate if I yelled." Kasumi thought, refering to her own voice which didn't have quite as much shouting distance as the goliath she was now traveling with. Kasumi's attention traveled back to the question she was getting asked, she remained mute on the subject for a moment before answering, seeing no harm in making small talk with the big guy after a few moments of thought.

"My name is Kasumi" she said truthfully, she felt she could place her trust in his hands. After all, what could one of her clan members possibly gain by giving her a lift and talking to her? She had no information she could disclose that the clan didn't already know (and that they didn't want her sharing with others) besides some personnal affairs.

Besides, a ninja may practice the art of stealth and sometimes even deceit but to use such irony in the form of such a loud machine seemed incredibly, well...stupid.

To top it all off, she was riding behind the man at the moment, holding on for dear life yes, but in no way this changed the critical position Kasumi was in. It would not take the blink of an eye for her to...

"**Huh**? What was that kid! I didn't hear you!" the man growled back to Kasumi, keeping his eye on the road rather than on the girl behind him. Another mistake no ninja would make...althought when she thought about it, maybe it would be more of a mistake to not look at the road...

"...huh? What?" a surprised Kasumi stuttered as she worked hard to shake off her inner thoughts. She realised that the man had asked her once again for her name and now that she had even more reason to believe that he was harmless she put a little more enthusiasm into her shout.

"My name is Kasumi!" she yelled, closing her eyes tight as she vented out some of her recent frustration in the yell at the same time. She had heard that yelling was a good way to release tension and from her experience, she felt that she could use it right about now, especially since she had an excuse to do it.

"**Woah! **Damn, not so loud kid!" her chauffeur called back to her, taking one hand off the handlebars to clean out the ear Kasumi had inadvertently yelled into, causing a look of pure panic to run across Kasumi's face.

Luckily he placed his grip back where it belonged before Kasumi suffered a heart attack.

"You can call me Bass, kid!" Kasumi looked away from the sidescrolling scenery beside her to try and catch a glimpse at him. "Hmm..." she thought, she didn't quite know why but the name had triggered a small spark somewhere in the back of her mind, though she couldn't really recognize him...but then again, the helmet Bass had equipped her with did make seeing a new kind of adventure.

She just hated it when memories decided to set camp up on the tip of her tongue.

"So what's a kid like you doing out here in this nick of the woods at this hour?" Bass asked with his usual rought tone, finally figuring out that he didn't really need to yell to catch Kasumi's attention much to her ears' relief.

"Umm..."

Kasumi had absolutely no idea how to answer that one.

"I'm...I was...visiting a relative...and I...missed my bus?" Kasumi muttered, trying to place the words together to make it vaguely coherent.

"What?"

"I was visiting a relative! And I missed my ride home!" Kasumi yelled, being careful not to overdo it this time.

"Ah, I get it now. But you know it isn't safe to walk back home on your own. Especially out here and at night no less!You should have stayed with your relatives." Bass scolded Kasumi.

Kasumi felt a small sweatdrop forming, something about this man just informed her that he was most likely a parent.

"I...I guess." Kasumi answered nervously, trying to keep her volume at a certain pitch without staying too long on the subject.

"So where are you heading?", Kasumi thought it best that she take control of this conversation till the end of their ride. Althought she was somewhat hopeful that Bass would let her off somewhere near her destination.

"I'm heading towards Tokyo, no place like home you know!" Bass let out a hardy laught as he imagined the miniscule appartment he had rented out there in the city.

Kasumi fell silent.

"Umm...hai..." she mumbled sadly more to herself than anything else now more than ever wanting to avoid the reason as to why she was out here. It had just been a day and already she felt the weight of her homesickness weighting down on her.

Kasumi had spent the whole day not really advancing either, she knew that deep down, it was merely her own hesitation that kept her from her objective, but it was only now that she was willing to give it any thought.

Althought the distance she may have crossed might be considered small to her, it was fair to say she had done quite a bit of legwork anyways and she showed no signs of real exhaustion besides a mild cramp to the legs from her earlier incident.

First she had to leave her home, a place that was surrounded by guards that were all mildly versed in the ninjutsu arts, not exactly the most brightest of people but a fair match for any normal person anyways. She was just lucky that she had not come across any of the elite guardsman and women that night, or she might not have been able to get away.

Then she had to climb out of the valley their village was located in. Not a particulary big valley needless to say but of a fair size anyways, with a noticeable depth which shielded the village from wandering eyes. The traps in the woods outside the valley handled anyone who decided to follow those eyes. For Kasumi, it was a simple task to get out using a few quick jumps, after all, this was childs play for her even back when she was friends with...

Kasumi thoughts pressed on.

Then Kasumi had to go down the side of the mountain, which happened to be another simple task for her ninjutsu training thankfully. Darkness was certainly no enemy of hers while she headed down the first mountain and then followed up by climbing the next one. Passing by and paying her respects to the empty Hayabusa village that was located a little bit higher up in the second mountain she had come across.

"So you live in Tokyo?"

"Uh, what?" Kasumi stumbled to find her words once again, caught off guard by Bass' question. She had to stop doing that.

"Umm...not reallly, I just have an errand to run..." Kasumi fibbed again, not realizing in time that her lie didn't quite coincide with her previous one. It would seem that despite all her ninja training, Kasumi never did get any good at lying.

"Oh really?"

"..."

"Well that's good, I can drop you off while i'm there." Bass figured that the girl wasn't telling him everything, but he also guessed she must have had her own reasons for doing so, so he shrugged it off.

Kasumi let out a low sigh out of relief, she was glad that he hadn't noticed her little slip of the tongue.

Honestly, under a certain angle, Kasumi was doing just that, going on an errand in Tokyo. She had no idea of the whereabouts of Raidou, so she figured the best place to hunt around for information would be there more than anywhere else seeing as how she could lay low at the same time and with the schoolgirl outfit she had dragged along with her, that would be a piece of cake.

Then a thought occurred to her, "Bass-san..." Kasumi started to ask. It had been nagging at her since she had gotten on with him earlier, when he had asked her (in english no less) wether or not she needed a ride, she was curious to know if he was really from around here. Curiosity was a cruel mistress indeed seeing as how she had just met him and she knew it was most likely not something you'd ask to a stranger and if her assumption was not founded, it could prove to be a very disrespectful question.

"Do you really live in Tokyo?"

"What? Oh, of course not!" Bass answered, "I'm actually from the good old U.S of A!" he stated proudly to Kasumi, who sweatdropped a bit from the amount of pride he had put into his words.

"I've been here for about a month actually, what tipped you off? Was it my accent or something?" he asked dumbfoundedly.

Kasumi had actually been surprised by how fluently Bass seemed to speak japanese, but it had been a pleasant surprise seeing as how she herself wasn't very well versed in the english language.

"I'm actually waiting here for a little competition to take place and I thought i'd get to know a little about Japan before hand. Seen quite a bit of things around here let me tell you." Bass added, with a tone that seemed to mix two different emotions, emotions that Kasumi wasn't quite sure she could disagree with.

"There are certainly more than our fair share of odd things here..." Kasumi thought.

"But all in all, I'm glad I checked it out, a man's got to see all kinds of things in his lifetime right?"

"I guess..." Kasumi answered. "So what kind of competition is it?" Kasumi asked, not really caring anymore if she was getting a little snoopy, the man didn't seem to mind at all answering her questions and she couldn't allow him any chance to ask her anything else that would have to make her lie to get out of answering...seeing as how she had already forgotten what her last lie had been.

"I'm glad you asked Kasumi!" Bass yelled out in his usual rough tone, though it seemed to show a little more of a childlike quality as he spoke now.

"I'm entering the Dead or Alive tournament, one of the most prestigious world tournaments out there, a test of every combattant's strenght and skill for thecoveted title of world's strongest fighter!"

"You practice martial arts?" Kasumi asked, wide eyed as she tried to imagine Bass in some sort of kind of meditive crane stance while wearing a white karate uniform. The mental imagine alone made Kasumi smile slightly, which was her way of controlling the fit of giggles that she felt would cause her ride to end. Have to respect your elders...on the outside atleast.

"Heh, I don't really use any of those fancy moves that come from around these parts but I got my own strategy that is sure not to fail!"

Kasumi felt she knew what his strategy would be just by looking at him, "Do you think you're strong enough to take on people who have been training in the art of not using brute strenght?" she asked, not really wanting to insult him but she wanted to know if he really knew what he was getting himself into by depending on something as trivial as brute strenght.

You can probably guess that Bass was flabbergasted by Kasumi's accusation, "Kid, you're looking at one of the strongest men alive! I may not be as spry as I used to but trust me, it doesn't take much punishment from me to teach people that a little brute strenght can go a long way."

"Ah...gomen-nasai Bass-san, I was just hoping you knew what you might be getting into to. Some martial artists can be really dangerous you know...?" Kasumi's timid apology trailed off. In truth, she had heard quite a few stories about injuries at these kinds of events and well...she was the kind of person who worries a lot...

"Don't worry about me kid!" Bass reasurred, "'Sides, I'm not really aiming for the top, i've already got all the glory I need and I've got enough money to keep me going during my retirement. I just have my eyes set on two certain competitors and I just happen to be invited. So I thought it'd be a good way to set both of them straight!", a confident smile crossed his face.

"Why are these people more important to you than the rest?" Curiosity once again starting to take over as the driving force for her lips. Somehow this started to sound like one of those bad plot devices that you sometimes see in TV or in Video Games (you know? Rivals and such entering in the same tournament just to take each other out) but for it to happen in real life, Kasumi couldn't help but be swept up in the idea.

"Heh, you're starting to ask a lot of questions but alright. First off, I was hoping to end up taking on my daughter, Tina. She's got quite a reputation as being a Grade A class fighter, after all, I was the one who trained her, so it wasn't any surprise to me when she told me that she had received an invitation to the DOA tournament.

Kasumi's imagination once again started to turn it's wheels as she started visualising a feminine looking Bass. She made a face.

"So you're daughter is well known?"

"About as famous as her old man! Too bad that doesn't seem to be enough for her..." Bass informed Kasumi, a tinge of chagrin tainting his tone. "Seems what I taught my little girl about the glory of fighting and winning didn't do much to stir up her wrestling spirit. I spend nearly 7 years of my life training that girl and trying to get her to act like a real lady, just like her mother and she ends up deciding that glory isn't enough? That she has to have fame too? Can you imagine? Giving up on Pro Wrestling for acting? And she'd better not think I haven't noticed how she uses the fact that she's a lady to gain more fans! ..."

Bass kept going on and on, regrets, shame, despair, you name it. The young girl couldn't help but feel a little sorry for both of them. To her, Tina was entitled to her own dreams of fame and she respected that but it was also terribly evident Tina's methods were something that no father could ever be proud of.

After a few more minutes of ranting, Kasumi felt a huge wave of relief pass over her as Bass finally changed the subject, finally getting to the identity of his other target at the DOA tournament. It was a good thing that Kasumi had found a subject Bass was deeply concerned about since it meant she didn't have to come up with any other questions but you have to admit, that anyone would get tired of hearing about the same things over and over again and no matter how respectful Kasumi was in both on the outside and the inside, she was desperate for another song to be played.

"As for the other guy...oh, I've got quite a bone to pick with him..." a low growl emerged from Bass' throat, which got Kasumi a tiny bit nervous, something told her this had nothing to do with the video game scenario she had imagined earlier. "He's the only man who's ever managed to sneak a win from out under my nose..."

"I suppose you wish to pay him back during the tournament?"

"Pay him back? Heck I plan to mop the floor with that bastard! I won't accept another shameful defeat like the one he delt me before! Using my own Jurassic Trailer to knock me out! That was the most humiliating event in my entire career! Especially since it was my only defeat since I started off as a pro wrestler!" Bass seemed to be furious, as if the memory had suddenly come rushing back to haunt him every time he spoke of it. "That Raidou stole some of my best moves and then just dissapeared from the circuit as soon as he got them! I checked out some of the wrestling records and it was if he had never existed before!"

Raidou.

"Did...you say, Raidou?" Kasumi asked, her eyes glazing over slightly as she caught wind of the identity of Bass' rival, she gave full attention to her ears, listening carefully to ever detail.

"You bet! It's a bit of an odd name right? Even for a man from Japan, well that's were he claimed to be from though it didn't really show." Bass was unaware of Kasumi's slightly tranced state as she was behind him at the time but to him something seemed a bit different in her as she talked now, she was also squeezing him tighter than she was before.

"Are...are you sure he will be at this tournament?" Kasumi asked, getting straight to the point.

"Huh? Yeah i'm sure, when I received the invite from the tournament a list of the other participants was added to let us prepare a bit more and make the fights more interesting. Apparently he's some kinda of champion in the tournament so the winner gets an exhibition match with him at the end, I was planning on simply challenging him as soon as I got there seeing as how he's a bit of arrogant one." Bass added, thinking back on that man's lousy attitude.

Kasumi quieted down as she gave this some thought, could this really be the same Raidou as the one she was now hunting? She had never met Raidou before but the description she had heard from witnesses of Hayate's defeat seemed to fit, arrogant, powerful, japanese and a master of copying skills and techniques...

"Can anyone enter the tournament?" Kasumi asked doubtfully, Bass had spoken enough of the invitations to tell her that without one she wouldn't be able to.

"Sorry Kid, only people who were invited are allowed entry into the Dead or Alive tournament." Bass gave out his answer without thinking much about why she asked it. To him, she didn't look like much of a fighter so he just figured she might have had some else in mind.

"I see..." Kasumi silently mumbled, looking down at the road as it sped past her.

She knew that if she wanted to enter the tournament, she would have to get her hands on an invitation...

Kasumi looked up at Bass, contemplating her options and seeing that they were indeed limited, but was she really willing to go that far for her mission? It just didn't seem right, especially after he helped her.

"I-i'll go easy on him..." Kasumi though as she pulled out a small blade from the sleeve of her schoolgirl outfit, which had been there the entire time seeing as how she had been a little weary about going off somewhere with a stranger at first.

Beeing a ninja, seeing things that were of great importance was a skill that decided wether you'd be a good ninja or simply a lesser ninja. From spotting traps, items or dangerous situations it was always a good idea to be one step ahead. This also applied to battle, which Kasumi had been trained in for those unavoidable situations where you get caught. It wasn't really something a ninja was supposed to be good at seeing as how they had other methods of taking care of things and they also had better things to focus their strenght in but it didn't hurt to know a few moves.

It would certainly help Kasumi in the tournament anyways, Ninjutsu wasn't your everyday martial art after all.

So with her keen eyes, Kasumi had noticed a small (messily opened) enveloppe in one of Bass' leather jacket pockets which had not been zipped up all the way.

Wether it was instinct or simple wishful thinking she didn't really care, that was most likely the invitation that Bass had refered to.  
Why he kept it on him was anyone's guess, and frankly, Kasumi couldn't care less. Luck was on her side and now wasn't the time to question why.

With her small blade in hand, Kasumi readied herself to cut off the bottom of the pocket, she figured it was best to do this without him noticing so she could get away as quickly as possible once the ride was over without him even realizing her act of betrayal.

"Are you ready?" a voice asked, it's source sitting comfortable on a tree branch above her partner.

"Yes ma'am, the others and I will be ready to strike down the traitor as soon as you call for us."

"Great, we'll try to make this quick and easy so don't worry about keeping the traitor alive, best not to take any chances."

"We will not fail you."

"We'll see about that."

The girl who had been talking from her perch up on the tree jumped off her branch, only to slowly and gracefully fall to the ground, her hand seemingly holding on to something as she came down.

"Well well, they're almost within range now aren't they? Better get to work, now remember, don't show yourselves until I call for you. If I get into any trouble, an ambush would end this right there and then."

"As you wish Kirami."

The raven haired girl turned around to face her second in command, she stretched her arms above her head, revealing a strange mechanism attached to her right arm underneath the long sleaved kimono. Her ample bosom stretched out forward and she let out a satisfied sound after cracking her fingers, her second in command couldn't help but stare with envy at the oblivious girl, who was too busy getting ready for battle.

"Let's do this."

Kasumi sighed as she shook her head and turned away from her target on Bass' leather jacket. She couldn't resort to stealing, no matter how desperate she was to find a way to get to Raidou. It just wasn't in her nature. Her mind screamed at her, and even her heart complained a bit but her conscious remained firm on it's decision.

"I'm sorry Hayate..." she muttered, "I'm too weak..."

Suddenly she looked up, her attention driven towards the darkened road up ahead. Something...something wasn't right...

That's when she saw it...but too late.

"Huh? What the? GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Bass yelled as he finally spotted the black kimono clad girl who stood in the way. Bass' attempted a desperate swerve to pass beside the victim but lost control as he did so, sending the bike sliding down the road with Bass still on it.

Kasumi on the other hand had trusted her instinct, she quickly took to the air as soon as she felt Bass couldn't handle the situation, jumping high up, performing a graceful twirl in the air as she prepared to land.

A swift flash of silver marked the end of Kasumi's landing, a small **_tchink _**barely audible as she landed, her feet however made no sound to which she thanked her training for as she stood only a few feet away from the girl who had stood in their path.

Kirami kept Kasumi within the corner of her eye as she eyed the motorcycle's wreckage. A dull look on her face kept her from showing the shock she experienced at Kasumi's skill.

"Not bad, I didn't expect you to see that while that idiot lost control." she complimented.

Kasumi turned to gauge Bass' state as well. He looked unhurt physically(besides a few scratch marks and a bit of blood) despite the nature of the accident, must have been thanks to his powerful constitution. His bike a few feet away, had knocked harmlessly into a tree and was still running.

But that was not what had Kasumi worried, she gazed at Bass' neck. A bright light emanating from it thanks to the moonlight. To any normal person this would be seen as simply odd but to Kasumi it was a source of great concern as she knew what it was. It was a very dangerous weapon that was not a favorite among ninjas because it left a good amount of bloody evidence behind whenever it was used.

A thin metallic wire that within the right hands, could make stealth unnecessary since it could make quick work of anyone who stood in it's user's way.

Kirami reeled in what was left of her Tetsugen.

"And here I thought what she said about you was true...should have known better than to take her word for it, you're much better than you look" Kirami said as she took a look at the end of the wire.

A perfectly clean cut.

Kasumi put the small blade she had in her hand before away.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Kasumi demanded.

"You definitly have more guts than she told me too." Kirami scoffed, "I am a member of the Mugen Tenshin Clan and a practionner of the Hajin Mon style of Ninjutsu. My name is Kirami, it's a pleasure to meet you" Kirami sarcasm was quite noticeable.

"So I take it...you're here under clan orders..."

"Definitly not as dumb as she says either."

Kasumi looked over to Bass and then gave Kirami a hateful look. "Why did you attack him? I though I was to be only target!" Kasumi yelled.

Kirami remained calm, compared to Ayane this was nothing. "Maybe I spoke too soon. You're a ninja, you should know that anyone who sees us during a mission should not be allowed to live and we certainly can't have witnesses now can we?." Kirami reached deep within the V of her Kimono, pulling out a strange object from inside.

She wrapped the end of her wire to her Fundo and twirled the weight around idely, making sure it was well attached. Her reel had plenty of more wire to spare so what Kasumi had cut off was no big deal, Kirami had just lost an attachment and that was all. She had plenty more where those came from.

Kasumi pulled out her Tanto and assumed a defensive position, blade firmly in hand and ready to cut down any more attempts Kirami might make for a quick kill.

"Nice outfit by the way." Kirami said as she appraised Kasumi's schoolgirl outfit. "Looks a little small don't you think?" as Kirami's eyes stopped at Kasumi's bust.

Kasumi's concentration was shot. She blushed crimsom at the remark. "D-don't say such things!" she cried out as her arms' defensive stance moved a little bit closer to her chest.

Kirami laughed, "My my, aren't we shy. You really are easy to play with! But let's end these childish word games...I think it's time to have some real fun." Kirami smiled as she stopped twirling her Fundo and caught it in mid-air.

"I'll try to make this quick and painless."

**End of Chapter 6**

_**You unlocked Alternate ending 6!**_

Kirami remained calm, compared to Ayane this was nothing. "Maybe I spoke too soon. You're a ninja, you should know that anyone who sees us during a mission should not be allowed to live and we certainly can't have witnesses now can we?." Kirami reached deep within the V of her Kimono, pulling out a strange object from inside.

The strap that kept the kimono together.

"Eek!" Kirami screamed as her kimono suddenly started to fall to the ground, leaving her struggling to grab what had not fallen with one arm while the other one tried vainely to conceal her large breast from Kasumi's innocent sight.

Kasumi's face turned beat red. She turned around, covering her face and trying to recover.

"Umm...need some time?" She squeaked.

"..." was Kirami's only response as she tried to get her clothing back on.

Back in the shadows of the forest. Some of the members of her information collectors were wondering why the second in command was spending so much time looking through the binoculars...with her mouth open wide.

"I warned her that outfit was unreliable..." she mumbled, only pausing to look at her own chest.

She wasn't really happy with what she saw.

**_End of Alternate Ending 6!_**

_**You unlocked Alternate ending 6.5!**_

"Nice outfit by the way." Kirami said as she appraised Kasumi's schoolgirl outfit. "Looks a little small don't you think?" as Kirami's eyes stopped at Kasumi's bust.

Kasumi's concentration was shot. She blushed crimsom at the remark. "D-don't say such things!" she cried out as her arms' defensive stance moved a little bit closer to her chest.

Kirami laughed, "My my, aren't we shy. You really are easy to play with! But let's end these childish word games...I think it's time to have some real fun." Kirami smiled as she stopped twirling her Fundo and caught it in mid-air.

Kasumi tilted her head. "What do you mean fun? I thought you wanted to kill me."

"Huh?" Kirami was taken by surprise, "You dumbass!" she yelled out to Kasumi who just cringed at the sound of her voice.

"It was a simple reference to the act of me (that's me Kirami) killing you (that's you, Kasumi) mixed with a healthy bit of sexual innuendo for good mesure and for taunting purposes." Kirami said with a matter of factly tone.

"Oh then shouldn't you have done something like this then?" Kasumi asked as she closed her eyes to get into character.

Kirami watched her attentively.

Kasumi opened her eyes again, she flashed Kirami a sultry smile. "How about we cut the chit chat and get down to some real..." Kasumi licked the side of her Tanto blade and let out a small moan.

"...fun."

"God...and I thought I was a real tease." Kirami noted with a dissapointed tone.

Kasumi smiled innocently.

_**End of Alternate Ending 6.5!**_

_**You tripped over the tape of Character Interview 1!**_

Saddened walks in, giving a enthusiastic wave to the audience: "Hi there! And welcome to our first edition of DOA Character Interviews! Where i'll be asking a character simple questions about their lifestyle and personnal information to satisfy reader curiosity!"

Saddened awaits applause.

"**..."**

Saddened : "Umm...the applause light is on isn't it?"

Kirami from behind a camera : "Apparently, seems like no one likes you enough to applaud though."

This dude never gets a break, Saddened : "...bastards...well anyways, our first guest is the official poster girl for the Dead or Alive series. The runaway shinobi who just won't quit. The girl with more family problems than a hillbilly at a all night drunk-a-thon waking up next to his sister and dog the next morning! Let's give it up for **_Kasumi_**!

Kasumi steps out from backstage and automatically the audience goes up into an uproar of applause, shouts and whistles.

Kasumi waves shyly at the audience and takes a seat next to the saddened Saddened.

Saddened : "Ugh whatever, you bastards are all going to hell once I'm done here."

Turns to Kasumi : "So Kasumi, tells us a little about yourself."

Kasumi takes a look at the audience, her expression is akin to that of a deer caught within the headlights of a car.

Saddened snaps his fingers infront of her face: "Yo! Snap out of it."

Kasumi instantly shakes off her daze : "Oh gomen...didn't mean to faze out there."

Saddened: "Who cares. More opportunities to take snapshots of you! Meaning, ratings!"

Kirami zooms the camera in at Kasumi's cleavage.

Half the audience leaves due to nose bleeds.

Saddened : "Eh... i didn't think there were that many guys out there."

Kirami : "There wasn't..."

Saddened thinks about it a bit, it takes him a bit of time to catch on : "That's just wrong...anyways, so Kasumi tells us about yourself!"

Kasumi : "Oh well, my name is Kasumi. I used to be a member of the Mugen Tenshin Clan and i'm a practionner of the Tenjin Mon style of Ninjutsu. I'm 15 and i'm a Pisces. I'm currently single, and marked as a Runaway Shinobi. I like the color pink and i'm always up for a Strawberry Milfeuille. My weapon of choice is my Tanto blade but if I can I prefer using my arms and legs as weapons to make sure I don't hurt anybody."

Saddened : "Uh huh uh huh, yeah. So tell us about your family."

Kasumi tried her best not to be offended by the delicate question of her family: "Hmm...well let's see, My mother is called Ayame and my father is called Shiden and I have an older brother called Hayate who is currently in a comatose like condition."

Saddened : "No sisters?"

Kasumi gives Saddened a perplexed look : "Huh? You would think i'd know about the members of my own family! So that's a no."

Saddened is the one with a perplexed look now : "Huh but it says here...hmm, well I guess it's no all that important right about now. So I've heard that you have a close relationship with your brother and his friend Hayabusa."

Kasumi smiled : "Yes, my brother was the one who I turned to whenever I felt sad or when I got hurt. It was thanks to him that I got by when my best friend left me...and Hayabusa, well, he's a nice guy too if not a little bit serious at times, guess he has good reason to be though seeing as how he has no family left..."

Saddened : "So any particular interest in the guy?"

Kasumi : "What? Of course not! He's already practically married to a woman called Aileen. They run a curio shop together. He's more of another older brother to me really and besides...he still treats me like kid. "

Saddened : "Well well, you just made a hell of a lot of fans very happy!"

Roar from the crowd and from the bathrooms, where the nosebleeders sought refuge.

Saddened : "Anyways, one last question."

Kasumi nods and crosses her legs while she waits.

Saddened : "The best friend you refered to earlier, you meant Ayane right? Did you ever see her again after the last time you two spoke?"

Kasumi suddenly became very silent, looking down at the ground.

She gazed back up, tears visibly trying to form at the corners of her eyes : "No, I never saw her again after she left the village."

Saddened : "If you could say one thing to her, what would you say?"

Kasumi didn't even seem to think about it as she closed her eyes and brought her hands to her chest, the memory of her "little sister" starting to affect her deeply.

"I'm sorry."

_**End of Character Interview 1!**_

_Well! I decided that to make up for the tardyness. I'd post two alternate endings instead (endings that i'm sure Dynamic Angel will find more to her liking) and a character interview as well for some added sillyness. Thanks to those little additions this is so far the longest chapter i've posted so far. Anyways, I'm still searching for my writing style as I go along so some comments are still eagerly welcomed oh and sorry to all you anonymous readers who'd like to review. I didn't realise that anonymous reviews were not allowed to review my stories, didn't notice the option e.e ._

_I also kinda added a slightly more sexual tone to the story this chapter simply because it's like my homage to Red Ninja (though it wasn't all about sex in that game) if you like how it was written now better than how I wrote before then tell me about it. I won't make it a permanent thing but I just might make a few more chapters later on a little more like this ('cept for all the flashbacks, which I still have loads to type up)._

_Now remember, the extras are just for fun and I don't really have to do them. I just love ya all way too much to leave you without these and i'm sure you'd be dissapointed if I didn't add them right? They don't really affect the story in any way (though some of them are refered to during the story.) so please don't yell at me for doing them or else...i'll stop! _

_As for Kasumi's constant changes in personnality. I'm happy with what i've written so far, i've added some japanese words to her vocabulary (even though she is basically speaking it anyways) and I've made her a bit more shy. Though that personnality will revert to her more Naru-esque ways some time later on when facing a certain someone. Oh and if you haven't noticed, she acts a little bit more like she does in DOAX and that's what I'm kinda going for. If you're not happy, then give me some good reasons as to why you're not happy and i'll see what I can do._

_As for me, I'll try my best to have the next chapter up as soon as possible but I do have a lot of school work to get through...so don't expect much. I'm also thinking of dividing Broken Butterfly (the name I plan to give to the What If fic where Kasumi consoles Ayane into two different stories each under one of the girl's POVs. Unfortunately, i'm kinda hesitating in writing this fic since i'll most likely have to add spoilers to the storyline within it (and I don't mean spoilers to DOA, i mean spoilers to Blossoming Swallowtail)._

_Anyways, read and review. Comments are always appreciated...especially the nice and long ones!_

_-Saddened Melody_


	7. Chapter 7: Project Gamma

_Argh, and after a very long break I have returned! I'm sorry to all my fans for taking so long in posting this chapter but I was having a hell of a lot of trouble doing the fight scene between Kasumi and Kirami and planning out how it'd go along! And yes, I'm still having trouble so I thought, before you forget about me, I'd post this chapter instead, seeing as how it doesn't affect the story's order because it happens at the same time. I'll try my best to post my next chapter, Lonely Road Part 3, as soon as possible and I promise, it'll be one LONG chapter 'cuz I've written a lot of it so far, I just need to sew it together ;_

_Anyways, forgive and enjoy!_

_Notes: Oh and the review commentary will now be placed at the bottom of the story, k?_

_And...I've updated my first 4 chapters again, not much has changed besides the fact that i've corrected some junk, made some scenes lenghtier and added some elements here and there. Check it out and tell me what you guys think ok?_

**Disclaimer:_ Here we go again, no I don't own Dead or Alive or any of it's characters, I don't own much really lol, 'sides Kirami and maybe the guards here but who'd really want those morons anyways? I'll stick with just Kirami thank you._**

**Blossoming Swallowtail**

**Chapter 7: Project Gamma**

_As soon as Ayane was out of sight Kirami let out a loud sigh in relief._

_Kirami hadn't exactly planned this from the start, she knew exactly where Kasumi was at the moment, their operatives had spotted her not too long before she was to meet with Ayane and technically, she WAS suppose to tell her but an oppurtunity to show up Ayane was too good to pass up._

_Kirami twirled a small spoon around in her cup of green tea as she thought. "If I can eliminate Kasumi before Ayane does..."_

_It wouldn't really go against the rules of the clan since pretty much everyone was advised to kill Kasumi on sight. Her operatives didn't do it since it was an order from Ayane and they were a lot more...shall we say, loyal than she was._

_All she had to do was go and eliminate Kasumi herself._

_And by the time Ayane realised that the deed had been done, it would be already too late..._

_"Or so she thinks..." Ayane thought as she continued on to her new location. She had an appointment with the DOATEC after all._

_Ayane never did like that ambitious little kunoichi and much less trusted her. But for now what Kirami did mattered not to Ayane._

_She snickered, "I hope Kasumi goes easy on the stupid fool, I'd like to teach that girl a lesson myself a little later."_

_**

* * *

**_

Tokyo, Japan, a city with many different faces. This place has been known as a bustling city with much to say during it's generation, each of it's many sides made for every different kind of person. During the day, it's faces shown with radiance, crowds, noise, lights everywhere...

Life in the light.

Japan had a decidedly similar face during the night, it's vision blurred by the neon lights of it's nightlife. The city shown just as brightly if not more so than during the day, which was decidedly not a good thing for those who resided in the dark.

For those like Ayane.

"Hmph, the more times I come to this town the more I'm reminded that I really should get some shades." she mumbled, looking down on the people as they walked about, not really caring if they saw her or not from the ledge she leaned on. If they did see her, it's not as if they'd be able to do anything anyways.

Ayane shrugged, "Well, I guess if they take a picture that'd be a problem but anyways..."

She looked up and faced the building she was leaning against, "DOATEC Tokyo Headquarters, proud sponsors of the Dead or Alive tournament and in charge of basic research and analysis." she said with a sarcastic tone while placing a hand on her hip and tilting her head lightly.

She took a look at the time on a clock of one of the nearby buildings.

Ayane crouched and started poking the window nearest to her, "Kirami had better be right about this..." she mumbled as the window slowly came open, allowing her to slide into the offices of DOATEC Headquarters.

Ayane examined Kirami's work on the window, her eyes narrowed, the lock's screw had been replaced with just the top of the screw mixed with a bit of work gum to keep appearances.

"I guess she isn't as useless as I thought after all...although, that is some pretty basic stuff..."

She allowed herself to take a look around the small set of cubicles that had been set out before her in an orderly fashion. The young ninja let out a small whistle, this place looked boring all right, she'd never figure that they had some secrets here that no one would like revealed to the general public.

"Well, better get to the head of the company's office...if anybody has the information I need to know it'd be him." Ayane mumbled to no one in particular while heading towards the elevator, not bothering to conceal herself even when a guard came within her line of sight. The woman probably wouldn't even notice her in the dark anyways.

"Hey you!"

Or maybe not.

Ayane ignored the guard, pressing the button to summon the elevator.

"Hey! I'm talking to you! Hands up where I can see them!" the guard said as she pulled out her gun from it's holster, aiming the flashlight directly at Ayane, who still had her back turned.

"Alright alright..." Ayane said with a smirk as she raised her hands up in the air and turned around to face the unsuspecting guard.

"What the? Is this some kind of joke? What's a kid like you doing here? And what's with the outfit? You in some kind of cosplay club?" the woman asked Ayane with a very confused expression but never letting the gun leave it's mark.

A vein appeared on Ayane's forehead at the stab at her favorite outfit. Scoffing mildly, "I'm not exactly much for social flings..." before the elevator opened up behind her.

"Hey! Step away from the elevator!" the guard yelled.

Ayane smiled and snuck a glance behind her adversary, "Hey Hayabusa, take care of her would ya?" she said with her ever present smirk on her face.

The guard quickly turned around to face the new intruder only to come face to face with nothing but an empty line of cubicles. "Huh?"

Ayane shook her head, "I'm surprised how often that actually works." she mumbled as she quickly chucked a tranquilizer dart at the guard's arm.

The guard's body tensed up for a moment but before it was given the time to fall to the ground, Ayane quickly kicked an office chair towards the woman, letting her fall on it and making it look as if the guard had fallen asleep on the chair. "Hope you wake up before your boss finds you like that. In the meantime...", Ayane walked over and took back her dart before stepping into the elevator and pressing a button. As the door closed she then proceeded to say one last thing to the guard "And I happen to like the outfit."

**Elevator music**

The Hajin Mon practionner leaned against the back of the elevator and yawned, her eyes wandered, looking through the glass, gazing out at the city below. The lights were very bright, maybe a little too bright up close, but the effect it created was pretty spectacular and even brought out a tiny trace of a smile from Ayane's lips.

But to live in the light...

That was something the Hajin Mon was not meant to do, no matter how you looked at it, their clan was more inclined to serving within the darkness...within the shadows. "To live...in the shadows..." Ayane mumbled quietly, her smile fading as a memory came forth in her mind.

Ayane closed her eyes for a moment.

A few minutes passed before her mind finally ventured into new territory. "I wonder how she's doing..." she wondered absent mindedly as the elevator kept going higher and higher towards her destination. Her thoughs not really concentrating on anything in particular at the moment, just going from thought to thought in an unorderly fashion, from Hayate's current state, to Hayabusa's current doings what with the story of the dark dragon blade over for the moment.

This mission wasn't particulary interesting her either to be honest, Kirami had been maybe too useful to Ayane's liking, having figured out the best time to infiltrate the building based on the patrol times. She didn't deny the fact that when Kirami and her sister Akemi went on a information raid, they did their job very well (well that is unless faced with Kirami herself then of course she'd deny it), but right now, she kind of regretted having taken Kirami's notes along with her.

She glanced upwards and sighed and was about to say something else when she finally noticed the camera up above her head, staring back at her.

"Well...things might be getting interesting." she mumbled as she just glared at the camera once more, pressing another button on the elevator before setting her sights on the outside world again.

* * *

"Get ready kid!" A man's voice said while holding his nightstick well in hand, determined to catch this intruder quickly and return to his comfortable office chair back in the control room where the camera images were sent to.

"Al-...alright..." a younger man said while holding up and pointing a gun towards the elevator door, flashlight in hand.

"Kid, put that gun down! You know that has to be used as only a last resort, 'sides, it's just a teenager. How she got here is up in the air but we'll have a talk to her about that as soon as she gets here that's for sure." The more experienced guard said while batting his nightstick into the palm of his hand in a menacing fashion.

"But w-why is she here?" The younger guard asked nervously, the older man just shrugged and stated that maybe she was just one of the other younger guards girlfriends who brought her in after hours and that she was now just wandering around, lost.

"But then why was she dressed like that?" the inexperienced guard asked, the older guard hit his face with the palm of his hand and dragged it down and away from his face while making a slight groaning sound. "You really are dense aren't you? Whatever, we'll find out when she gets here..."

The younger man nodded and looked up at the elevator's floor indicator, which told him that the intruder would be here soon enough. He tried to steady his gun while the other man simply just kept batting his nightstick in his palm, much more calm about this than the new nightshift guy.

The elevator stopped on the floor beneath them, where the patrol room was located.

"Huh? Maybe I was right about it being someone's girlfriend..." motionning to the younger guard to radio the patrol room guards to ask about it and about the girl.

The young man nodded his head to aknowledge the request and pulled out his radio, calling out to the guards who were now taking a break there.

They waited for a moment...

A minute passed...

No answer.

"That's strange, you did replace the batteries right?" the older guard asked with a dissaproving look to the younger one. "Of course I did! These batteries are brand new! They must not have their radios on them!..."

* * *

On the lower floor, layed atleast a dozen guards sprawled out on the ground of the patrol room, each and everyone of them unconscious and in incredibly bad shape. Low groans could be heard from those who's mind was working enough for it to feel pain, unfortunately for them and the rest just stayed on the ground, in a state that made them look near dead.

They never saw what hit them, the poor fools.

"Guess coming here at the right time didn't change much...oh well." Ayane said with a grin as she cracked her knuckles and stretched her arms over her head, letting out a satisfied laugh. She had had her fun for the night. She approached the camera control system and quickly removed the tape of her in the elevator, deleting all traces of it from file as well.

Tossing the tape up into the air, she quickly caught it and broke it over her knee.

"Well that's that for now I'd say...now...for what I came for." she smiled as she tossed what was left of the tape out onto the city streets below. Walking out of the patrol room and heading towards the elevator once more. Ayane ignored the radio calls from the guards on the higher level as she nibbled lightly on a chocolate donut.

* * *

"Hey look, the elevator is moving again!"

"Do you think it's one of our own?"

"Probably. But it might be that girl again...maybe the guys went out for their break, lousy jerks probably forgot to tell us."

A loud ringging sound was heard as the elevator reached their floor and the door slowly opened...

Revealing that it was empty...

"Huh? What the...?" the older guard asked as he approached the opened elevator with vigilance. The younger guard was also confused, was the elevator broken?

"Hmm? What's this?" one of the guards said as he put his nightstick away and picked up a small sphere like object from the ground. He moved it around in his hand but couldn't tell what it was. The younger guard walked over and looked over his sempai's shoulder to take a look at the strange black sphere.

And finally, under the pressure of the guard's touch the sphere opened up, letting out a huge blast of grey smoke which envelopped both guards in it's blanket. Coughs could be heard from both guards as each one tried to figure out what just happened,attempting vainely to find their way out of the elevator to get out of the smoke's way.

The young man managed to get out of the elevator, he fell to his knees and breathed in as much fresh air as he could, letting out a few more coughs as he did so. He didn't ignore the loud **thud** he heard from back in the elevator, "Hey Sempai, you all right?" he asked, coughting a bit more.

No answer.

"D-id cough he pass out?" the guard worried as he got back up, only to fall back down to his knees as he felt the sharp and powerful impact of a blunt weapon to the head only seeing a flash of purple before blacking out completely and falling on his face.

* * *

"Pathetic." Ayane shrugged as she tossed the nightstick onto the younger guard's unconscious body before walking away not bothering to hide the guards bodys' away, she wasn't planning to stay much longer.

Tredding in her usual confident way, Ayane followed the extravagant red carpet which led towards the only room on the top floor. The top floor much more well designed then the earlier floor Ayane had been on, beautifully added with glass panels instead of walls to allow a glamorous view of the city on the oval shaped floor. They had even added some benches and plants which made it feel more like a kind of tourist spot.

Ayane ignored all this as she came to the doors of the only office located here, which read "Fame Douglas" on the gold plate mounted on the wooden doors. The door itself screamed extravagance which led Ayane to believe that the man who owned this office was most likely just some spoilt rich brat who just signed papers while reaping the benefices of the work of those under him. She started to have her doubts to wether or not he'd be the one with the documents on Raidou she'd need to understand what they were planning with him.

"Only one way to find out I guess..."

Ayane pulled out a small lockpicking tool from her bandanna and worked quickly on the door, as she entered the large office, she took the time to appraise the room with a critical look. She wasn't impressed to say the least, the room was exactly what'd you'd expect from the owner of a company like this, which specialized in researching weapons and analysing the way they were used by soldiers. The walls were filled with books ranging from light reads to very big dictionnairies, all most likely informatif on the subject of high tech weaponry.

Ayane doubted that they had been all read.

Behind the desk, which was of course quite imposing with a flatscreen computer sitting on it and various documents littering its surface, was another wall replaced with many large frame windows which would of course act as a quick way to distract yourself from boredom.

It was a nice place but definitly not Ayane's style.

Her investigation started with the documents on top of Douglas' desk, grabbing a few papers and reading the titles and the subject matter on the documents. "Let's see...developpement of a new kind of sonic grenade made for shattering glass...don't all grenades do that anyways? Work on a new kind of stun weapon that can cause temporary memory loss and disorientation...well that sounds illegal. Funds needed for Project Chronos...not much said on that...Investigation of a rival company's connection with one of the employees here...a certain Itagaki..."

Ayane looked miffed, "This is all useless junk...I should have known better than to waste my time here..." she growled as she dumped the documents back on the desk and glanced around once more.

One last document finally caught her attention, sitting right next to the computer, that had the title "Donovan's notes" written on it. It didn't look as if it had been read yet as it was still in it's folder unlike the rest...most likely this was what she was looking for. She wasted no time in slipping the document out and leafing through the pages of the notes that had been written.

"Hmm..." she kept leafing through it until she reached a page that finally made mention of her father's name. "Project...Gamma, hmm...seems to be some kind of research on the physiology of Humans and analysis of their limits using Raidou as a research subject...project Gamma reveals that Project Epsilon and Omega are very well possible...hmm? Project Epsilon and Omega?" Ayane arched a brow, the documents didn't make any mention of those projects...maybe they were going to be introduced later on in the future?

"However the subject (Raidou) cannot be used for anything past Project Gamma, he has shown various psychological and obediance problems that would lead us to believe that he would be difficult to control later on.

Project Omega will require a different test subject as well as Project Epsilon and Beta at our Headquarters in Germany. Difficult to say if subject Gamma will take this well concerning the promise we made to him for more physical strenght through those specifique projects but that will have to be the concern of project Theta's future test subject later on if our plan to dispose of him are somehow interrupted...heh, guess they plan to double-cross Raidou later down the road then..." Ayane was glad she had finally found something worth this whole trip to Tokyo, she smiled lightly at the thought that her "father" was finally going to get what he deserved no matter how destiny played out it's cards.

And if she had anything to say in this, destiny would have no choice but to fold to her.

"Plans are underway for the Dead or Alive tournament, which will allow us to further increase our knowledge on human limits concerning combat ability...if all goes well, this will certainly help increase the already crushing strenght of DOATEC influence on the world of weapons and arms...results from our chief researcher from project Beta and myself will be sent to you as soon as possible...and I'm sure you will be satisfied with what we find out."

Ayane arched a brow, "All these different projects...DOATEC really does have some pretty shady stuff going on here...I wonder why the head of the company just left this document out here..." she asked while looking over to the folder. "Maybe it was a late delivery..." she thought, " The messenger was obviously a grade SS class moron..."

Well whatever, she had what she wanted anyways, no point in delving on stupid questions so she just slipped the document back to where it had been placed and simply left through the door, slamming it as she did so.

"There has to be more to this than what was written on that document..." Ayane thought as she strolled over to the elevator once more, kicking the unconscious body of the older of the two guards out before the elevator door closed.

"Hmm, all those different projects...they say that Raidou is unbalanced mentally, so he's no good for the other experiments they plan to do...I'm not surprised that they came up with that conclusion either, he's worthless. But is that why he came to the village? Did they lose their guinea pig after he felt that he wasn't getting what they had promised? So he could come over and get the Torn Sky Blast to grow stronger?"

Ayane shook her head.

"But why did he come back afterwards if he figured that they were going to take too long to give him what he wanted?..." Ayane stared out of the window with a pensive look on her face, her lips spelled out each project's name as she went back to the floor where the window she had opened was. "Beta, Gamma, Epsilon, Theta and Omega..." the purple haired girl could not really conceive what these projects were all about...

So many questions unanswered...she could have looked around even more...if she had the patience. Either way, she figured that what was written on there was meant to stay vague, evidence was so hard to dispose of these days. "If he has anything else to say, it'll most likely be in person...I'm going to have to send Kirami back here again to handle that, this information thing really isn't my thing..." Ayane said, regretting having left Kirami to go do whatever while she did the information hunting, it was such a tedious job and without a teammate, it was difficult to really know what was going on in the building while you examined the evidence.

The elevator door opened and Ayane walked out, passing by the down and out guard she had knocked out earlier and heading towards the window.

"Maybe he came back for the tournament?" the kunoichi questionned herself further, slipping out the window and closing it. She leaned against the ledge once more and closed her eyes, "Better tell Genra about this later on...maybe he'll be able to make heads or tails out of it. But then again, guess this will make more sense after I get Kirami back in there...it is her job after all..." Ayane mumbled and found herself hoping that Kirami wouldn't get hurt too badly against Kasumi, after all, the girl wouldn't be very useful if she got herself hurt.

**End of Chapter 7**

_**You unlocked Alternate ending 7!**_

So many questions unanswered...she could have looked around even more...if she had the patience. Either way, she figured that what was written on there was meant to stay vague, evidence was so hard to dispose of these days. "If he has anything else to say, it'll most likely be in person...I'm going to have to send Kirami back here again to handle that, this information thing really isn't my thing..." Ayane said, regretting having left Kirami to go do whatever while she did the information hunting, it was such a tedious job and without a teammate, it was difficult to really know what was going on in the building while you examined the evidence.

The elevator door opened...partially.

"Huh? What the?" Ayane said with a surprised look on her face, pulled away her from her trail of thoughts by the event.

The door had only opened a tiny bit.

"Crap, just what I needed...now what am I supposed to do." she said, crossing her arms under her bust and looking upwards to think.

"Maybe if I..." Ayane thought as she pressed the Open Door button of the elevator.

The door closed a tiny bit more.

"Shimatta..." she groaned, her previous questions now clearly out of her mind as she racked her head trying to figure out what to do, but trying to keep her calm.

She pressed another button.

The door closed about an inch more, now there was barely enough place for someone to pass through the opening while going sideways.

"Merde...guess I'll have to do this the degrading way..." she sighed as she lifted her arms up high above her head and tried to pass through the opening sideways.

"Eh?"

She couldn't pass through.

"What the...?" the purple haired kunoichi wondered as she looked down.

She smacked her head against one of the doors, unable to do it with her hands in her present position.

"I really need to use bandages to keep these things under control..." she sighed miserably as she sunk back in the elevator, cursing her own assets, again.

**_End of Alternate Ending 7!_**

_**Review Commentary:**_

Dynamic Tenshi: lol I'm glad you enjoyed last chapter's second alternate ending but don't expect too many more like that, I'd like to keep my rating at a certain level thank you very much. Bleh, the character interview needs a hell of a lot of work and I plan to do that work later on.

Johnny H.: Good idea, I'll do just that and wait for this fic to be completed before doing the other one, maybe Broken Butterfly could be like the alternate ending for that chapter (a huge-ass alternate ending that requires it's own story anyways)!

Fireinu: Don't we all? Unfortunately, that girl is actually just envious of Kirami's traits, she aint really interested. Trust me.

Wolf : Wow, you were rought! Well, atleast that's the roughtest review i've gotten so far and I'm happy for your imput. And yeah, I probably should separate the extras from the main story so I think I'll place all the extras in their own little chapter later on so viewers can read the story in one shot and not get sidetracked. I shall call the chapter...DOA Booster Disc! Lol

Maveriq : Sorry to dissapoint you for the fight, but it had to wait till later but don't worry, I'm working hard on it. And as I said with Wolf, the extras do seem to make it stray from the story so from now on, I'll limit the extras to just one per chapter and just fix up the chapter even more to make up for lateness in the future...uh, 'cept for this one cuz I'm working extra hard on the next chapter.

Nema : Hey! My first anonymous reviewer, congrats on that. And yeah, I like all the characters in DOA and put a lot of effort into portraying them the way I think they'd be because I like them a lot. Bass is one of my main chars but I plan to give the same treatment to other characters later on, expect a few new (DOA familiar) faces in the next few chapters!

Anyways, read and review and I'll answer all your questions and critiques! See you guys around, I need sleep now.

Saddened Melody

A.K.A Final


	8. Chapter 8: A lonely road Part3

**Read bottom for info and excuses, argh.**

**Disclaimer: _I don't own DOA or any of the characters from Red Ninja either so don't sue me. And no, this isn't really a Red Ninja/DOA crossover seeing as how the Red Ninja characters are just there as a fun little cameo. I plan to add lots of other ninjas from various animes and games as well that might or might not have any kind of impact to the story.  
Keep in mind however, this is first and foremost a story about Dead or Alive and mostly concentrating on Ayane and Kasumi._**

**Blossoming Swallowtail**

**Chapter 7: A Lonely Road-Part Three**

Kasumi pulled out her Tanto and assumed a defensive position, blade firmly in hand and ready to cut down any more attempts Kirami might make for a quick kill.

"Nice outfit by the way." Kirami said as she appraised Kasumi's schoolgirl outfit. "Looks a little small don't you think?" as Kirami's eyes stopped at Kasumi's bust.

Kasumi's concentration was shot. She blushed crimsom at the remark. "D-don't say such things!" she cried out as her arms' defensive stance moved a little bit closer to her chest.

Kirami laughed, "My my, aren't we shy. You really are easy to play with! But let's end these childish word games...I think it's time to have some real fun." Kirami smiled as she stopped twirling her Fundo and caught it in mid-air.

"I'll try to make this quick and painless."

**CRACK!SMASH!**

"Take this!"

Kirami yelled as she slammed her Fundo down onto Kasumi who narrowly escaped the previous slam Kirami had performed with the weapon.

Kasumi nimbly hopping from side to side, dodging, backflipping and jumping over every attempt Kirami made at striking her. Far from exhausted, Kasumi had this little dance going for a while now.

This battle was Kirami's to control for the moment, but what use was control over the terrain if you couldn't hit your adversary?

None whatsoever, which annoyed Kirami to no end as anyone could tell by her mouvements, which became increasingly violent and erratic. Patience had always been a strong point with her in the past, unfortunately, she always was a little short tempered.

Once again, Kirami's Fundo quickly swept pass right over Kasumi's head forcing the princess of the Mugen Tenshin Clan to duck. She stayed down, the weapon passing over her more than once this time and the Fundo attached to it threatening to knock off her head clean off with each passing swing.

The asphalte covered road had been perfectly smooth before all this had started but everytime Kirami struck her weapon down, the whip like object would create a sizeable pothole with every single swing, which should have made it slightly more difficult for Kasumi to dash around with every successful dodge. However, this little problem seemed to be completely disregarded by Kasumi as she taunted Kirami a bit by giving her a mischievous smile with her tongue stuck out a bit as she cartweeled her way out of another possible fatal wound.

"You know, this would be easier on you (and me) if you'd stand still!" Kirami growled, Tetsugen impacting right infront of Kasumi as she deftly leaned backwards slightly to evade.

"I have something more pressing to do, can't we just end this quickly?" Kasumi asked with a tone filled with a tiny bit of impatience, little by little, Kasumi was starting to realise that this battle might just be a waste of time, it certainly corresponded with the action she had been seeking out earlier but now things were starting to get a little repetitive.

A vein popped up on Kirami's forehead at Kasumi's lack of interest in her present life or death situation.

Kasumi dodged another quick slash from Kirami's weapon, "Eh? I guess that's a no..." Kasumi muttered with a sigh.

Kasumi didn't seem shaken at all by any of Kirami's graceful (despite a certain lack of anger management on Kirami's part) yet deadly motions, predicting effectively where the blows would come down and avoiding the move with the relative ease and grace that only someone highly trained in ninjutsu could achieve.

However, Kirami's frustration reached it's peak as pink flower petals swirled around Kasumi for a moment before she faded and reappeared only a few steps away, just a fancy way of backing up and basicly acting as a kind of taunt.

As one would guess from Kasumi's usual personna, that wasn't exactly the case...though the word exactly has to be stretched a bit.

In fact, Kasumi was more or less worried for Kirami's safety over her own...Kirami just got frustrated so easely...it left much to be desired on the level of patience and inner focus and ontop of that...it would seem she left many openings in her attacks...and with no way of knowing if it was intentional or not, Kasumi simply let the question roll around in her mind, curiously wondering why someone would leap into single combat with so many faults in their form.

But...part of her just felt like playing around with her some more, like a kid would play with a somewhat aggressive puppy.

Then again, contrary to most ninjas, Kasumi had been specially trained for combat after all. Much like a certain self proclaimed super ninja who'm she hadn't seen in a bit ever since the Dark Dragon Blade incident.

Kasumi didn't really realise that this wasn't as much fun to Kirami as it was to her.

Just then the Runaway realized something was kinda odd... she quickly found that her heart was racing and that the hair on the back of her neck was now standing on end as if she had been hit by a jolt of energy. She looked back up at Kirami who had stopped attacking for a moment and who simply stared intently at her.

"Umm...was I daydreaming again?" Kasumi wondered, her habit of getting lost in thought probably being one of her most annoying weaknesses.

Kasumi gazed at Kirami, whom just gave her something that ressembled an annoyed glare which somehow made Kasumi tense up again very suddenly as another jolt passed through her.

Other than that, another odd appearance caught Kasumi's gaze as she realized Kirami's weapon now stood erect above Kirami's arm, which aimed up at the sky but yeah if you were in her position Kirami's glare would catch your attention first before that did.

The Hajin Mon Assassin had been mumbling for a while now Kasumi realised, the same miffed glare piercing the brown haired girl as strange symbols started floating around Kirami, repeating the words she herself created around her as she went along.

"Let my summon reach the very heavens, it is all I ask,

My adversary is arrogant enough to deny your very wrath,

Let my weapon speak for you and let me complete this task

My adversary shall not survive within their chosen path."

Kasumi glanced at the tip of the weapon, a strange cloud started to billow around it and it all suddenly started to make sense...

Suddenly this aggressive puppy had outgrown it's baby teeth...

Instantly, her feeling of dread increased suddenly and quickly Kasumi prepared for the worst as Kirami's chant suddenly start to gain volume, the symbols moving about violently in the air in a faint blue glow.

"Tetsugen Rain!"

The wiring on Kirami's arm started to pull and fly out of it's reel violently all of a sudden, as if a VERY strong fish had caught her weapon and was now trying to get away but Kirami looked unsurprised by the event, the wiring going off into the cloud that she had created.

**CRACK! BOOM!**

Kasumi quickly dodged to the left, falling to the ground from the excessive force of the blast she had just dodged.

Kasumi looked back at what had nearly hit her...

And for a split moment before it dissapeared back into the cloud, she saw Kirami's Fundo...

Suddenly the Kunoichi found herself spinning out of the way of another attack, placing three fingers on the ground and rotating her entire body out of the way of the next blast...she tried hard to stand firm next to the blast but found it hard as debris flew and scratched parts of her body.

"It...it strikes almost as quickly as lightning..." Kasumi thought with a nervous laugh "I guess she wasn't as unprepared as I thought she was...I can't see where each strike is coming from..." she thought as another sudden blast came from the sky, she winced lightly as the wind pressure that came from the weapon's speed of descent grazed her shoulder lightly, leaving a cut where it had passed and forcing her once again down to the ground.

"Yes!" Kirami said with a smirk as she shifted her concentration for the second phase of her powerful arcanum. Kasumi barely had the time to recover from the previous bit of damage as she suddenly found herself rolling out of the way from a multiple string of quick strikes, coming forth one after the other at such a speed that it created an afterimage, following Kasumi as she rolled away quickly before finally using a hand to propel herself back on her feet and jumping away swiftly to dodge the last strike.

Kasumi's eyes narrowed as she awaited the next blow a few shurikens waiting between her fingers however, it would seem that Kirami's special move had hit it's limit...or more like it's user had hit her limit as she looked on in shock and fatigue as the cloud above her dissapated, sending the Tetsugen back to it's user's arm.

Kasumi glanced at both Kirami and the weapon, by the look in Kirami's eyes, a look of slight dissapointment, the spell she had just effected had not turned out completely as she had hoped.

"I get it...that spell was taught to her to make up for her weakness. But she isn't used to using it which would mean..." Kasumi sighed in dissapointment, this battle was completely pointless now.

Kirami took in a few deep breaths and tried her best to get rid of the blur from her eyes from the fatigue that came from using such a highly taxing move like that.

Most people would never even have the proper speed (or warning if Kirami had her way) to do such things as avoiding Kirami's Tetsugen but she had underestimated Kasumi's skills in ninjutsu...something she had never done before with all the connections she harbored...

"D-darn...that spell should have made mince meat out of her...no way she'll leave me the time I need to do it again...plan B I guess..." Kirami muttered as she saw Kasumi's dissaproving look.

"Are you alright?" Kasumi asked in a worried tone, noticing that it was taking longer than she expected for Kirami to recover.

Kirami slowly pulled the Tetsugen up in the air again, reeling in the excess wire used for her Tension Rain to prepare for another slam "Then I'll just have to do this the other way!" she called out.

"Geez..." Kasumi thought as she quickly took on a running crouch position and moved in on Kirami, determined to end this.

Kirami looked mildly surprised as Kasumi came in rushing, but her expression soon changed to a confident smirk. "It was about time she tried this..." Kirami whispered as she dashed back to meet Kasumi's sprint. Maybe things were looking up after all?

Twirling her Fundo around her shoulder once, removing excess wire with the reel and catching it on the second pass, giving it the most tension she could afford without cutting herself much like a martial artist would hold a pair of Nunchucks ready for release.

Kasumi realised too late that this was in fact, Kirami's counterstrike position.

Her stance rattled as bit, the tiniest bit of hesitation giving Kirami ample time to reach Kasumi who had slowed down only 2 feet away, pushing Kasumi's Tanto out of the way by forcing her Tetsugen's wire into it, she quickly pulled her other arm in for a moment as her Tetsugen arm forced danger out of the way before performing a quick jab with her elbow to Kasumi's stomach.

"**Oooomfh**!" Kasumi gasped as she lost most of the air from her lungs in that single blow. Kasumi thoughts went black for a moment, not bothering to clutch her stomach as she slowly started to fall backwards.

Kirami wasn't done however as she quickly backed away with a hop and dashed back, pulling her legs together as she momentarily leaned on one arm before using the momentum from her dash to thrust her legs in a spear like formation while spinning them right into the Runaway's surprised form, knocking her back a few meters.

Kasumi tossed and rolled but caught herself around three meters later, ending the roll in a crouching ready position, catching the blade that had fallen out of her grasp during the kick right out of the air infront of her as it passed infront of her eyes.

Kirami looked on with a confident smirk, her first real blow having delt a significant amount of damage to Kasumi without a shadow of a doubt though Kasumi did not seem at all phased by the power behind the blow. A few scratches from the distance crossed and a bit of dirt on her blue sailor fuku but nothing else, Kirami had to admire Kasumi's bluff though, it was pretty convincing.

However...

As Kasumi's blade found home back in it's users grasp, the Kunoichi raised her eyes to face Kirami and she smiled gently at her opponent, causing a large imaginary question mark to pop up over Kirami's head.

Why exactly was she so calm?

Kasumi finally placed the shuriken she had unsheated from an unknown area of her body back into her bag and got up while dusting her schoolgirl outfit off a bit and wondering to herself what the heck possessed her to wear such a thing..."Kirami was right...this thing really is small..." she thought to herself with pensive look on her face, ignoring Kirami for now but the shadow of a smile still present.

Kirami's gaze widened, "Wha-..." she started before a small sound coming from her weapon caught her attention, barely noticeable but there none the less and quite easy to take into account thanks to the uneasy silence between her and the smiling Kasumi.

She gulped lightly before daring to gaze at her Tetsugen...

Which had been effectively and cleanly deprived of all it's steel wiring by what looked like a few quick slashes from a very sharp blade.

And as if it had just realised that it was now defying gravity, the tattered pieces of wiring fell from the reel mount on Kirami's arm and landed on the ground, the Takeda ninja staring on with a mixed expression of shock and amazement.

Kasumi had rendered her weapon...useless.

And what was worse...she had done it while sparing her and the weapon itself, just disposing of it's ammunition. How and when was something Kirami knew nothing about...Kasumi had attacked her without her even noticing...and maybe this was her way of telling her...telling her that she had no hope of defeating her...

...a warning.

And a damn good one at that.

Kirami fell to her knees, the shock of it all hitting her hard.

"I knew it...you lack any real speed and you rely on that weapon for surprise attacks and you have no experience with that spell of yours..." Kasumi said with a reproachful tone, as if she were scolding Kirami for having failed to bring in a test at the right time or like a mother would scold their children for staying up too long.

Kirami's didn't move, she just couldn't believe it...

"Sooooo...what will you do now?" Kasumi asked in a friendly tone, resheating her Tanto and placing it in her bag. She lifted the bag and placed it over her shoulders and waited for Kirami's answer.

"I'm..." Kirami said shakily, still taken aback by how much skill this "little princess" had...

Ayane's name for her certainly was misleading...

"I'm...not done yet." she turned her head violently and gave Kasumi a hateful glare before she stood up and got into a typical Hajin mon stance, too stubborn to give in just yet.

Kasumi sighed lightly, she didn't want to keep fighting...She was slightly afraid of hurting the older yet much less experienced (at one on one combat anyways, who knew what she could do under the right circumstances) girl and to top it all off, she had to tend to Bass' wounds before continuing her mission, she still had much to find out about.

Kasumi looked away, "You know...you don't have to really prove anything? You were a competent fighter..." she stated walking over to Bass who was finally beginning to stir.

Obviously Kirami got miffed at this, but not because of Kasumi's overwelming amount of confidence now but because...it was well founded.

It was as if...this girl was on a completely different level than herself and despite the age difference...she didn't have anything near the skill needed to handle her.

That didn't mean Kirami wasn't going to try thought, no way in hell was that small detail gonna get in between her and her chance at showing Ayane up.

"Who has something to prove? I have my own little mission to handle and i'm not about to drop it either." Kirami replied stubbornly, getting between Kasumi and Bass.

Kasumi let out a slight sigh.

You had to admire the girl's persistence.

At first, Kasumi was worried that Kirami would be a really dangerous person to tangle with but as the battle went on...it became a little obvious to her that Kirami wasn't very experienced when it came to single and fair combat, something Kasumi had always been a natural at.

So she didn't feel threatened at all when Kirami placed herself between Bass and herself. It wasn't as if she was underestimating her opponent, if anything, it was most likely Kirami who underestimated her judging by all the trash talk she had done at the beginning of the battle.

But, like some would say, the rose's thorns had been removed, not much left to defend itself with now was there.

Kasumi tossed her bag to the side and assumed her ready stance.

Kirami struck out with her own version of Genmu-So again, jumping back once and then back forward quickly, using the momentum and an arm that kept itself on the ground to unleash a powerful drill like kick towards Kasumi, who swiftly moved out of it's way, having predicted it right before because of how long it took Kirami to prepare the movement...and because she saw it before.

Grabbing her backturned opponent as she got up. Kasumi quickly and mercilessly jammed her knee into her Kirami's back and grasped her opponent's head firmly between her hands, rolling her body backwards and disorienting Kirami in the process.

Kasumi's roll finished with Kasumi ontop of Kirami's back and quickly, before Kirami even knew what hit her, Kasumi drove her palm into the back of Kirami's head, slamming her face into the ground beneath her and the impact making Kirami grow very still.

"Ah! Gomen-nasai! Are you alright?" Kasumi asked in a sudden burst of worry, akwardly wondering if she had maybe been a little too rought, however a quick twitch from Kirami's fingers and a quick look at her pulse told her she'd live.

Kasumi let out a sigh of relief and smiled.

Kasumi dragged Kirami off the road with little effort after making sure the wounds on her face wouldn't cause any real damage before heading towards Bass to examine his wounds.

While he was still breathing, he had not moved since the fall. She checked the back of his head and saw that nothing serious had happened to him, he should wake up soon enough seeing as how the fall hadn't really been that violent.

Kasumi removed the metal wiring around his neck and put it away in her bag and as she prepared to set him down in a lying position so he'd be able to rest, she once again, caught sight of his DOA Tournament invitation.

Kasumi just looked at it for a moment, longingly. Her eyes shining as if she were staring at her favorite dessert...

It was her best chance to complete her mission, Raidou was most likely there and all she'd have to do would be to get close to him...that invitation could get her the distance she so desperatly needed without attracting too much suspicion and it would certainly make her long and difficult task much easier...

All she needed to do was to reach out and...

She quickly turned turned her head away, "I...I can't resort to such a thing. It doesn't belong to me." she told herself, trying her best to think straight.

But the thought was still there and the prize as well...she stole another quick glance at it...

And then turned her attention to Kirami to distract herself, "I wonder what I should do about her..." she wondered, the thought of leaving her there with Bass not sitting to well with her.

"..."

Kasumi stopped moving for a moment, taking a few swift glances all around.

"No one..." Kasumi mumbled with a perplexed look on her face.

"Here." a melodiously young voice said from beside her, causing Kasumi to jump, another one of Kasumi's strange habits that replaced most other ninja's reflexes to simply cut down those who snuck up on them.

There sitting right next to her and with Kirami's head laying on her lap was a young girl, thirteen, fourteen maybe wearing a short white kimono with a few butterfly imprints on them, a few real white butterflies fluttering around her. The girl laughted at Kasumi's reaction while Kasumi tried to recover from the initial shock of having been snuck up on.

"Here." the girl repeated, handing a small enveloppe to Kasumi a shy smile on her face.

Kasumi tilted her head lightly in confusion, taking the enveloppe from the girl. She started to open it when she noticed the girl's gaze had fallen on somewhere she'd rather it not be on.

"So...big..." the girl mumbled lightly.

"Ahem." Kasumi coughed purposely giving the girl a dissaproving look, Akemi got the message quickly enough and removed her envious stare from Kasumi's umm...assets. Kasumi turned her attention back to the piece of paper inside the enveloppe.

"Umm...a grocery list?" Kasumi wondered, staring at the piece of paper.

"Oops, wrong one." Akemi said, ripping the piece of paper from Kasumi's quizzical gaze and replacing it with another sheet of paper.

Kasumi took her time to read the sheet of information, Akemi evaluating her reaction while she did so, noticing that Kasumi's breathing seemed to become more and more silent.

Kasumi just let her grip fall, her arm falling limply to her side, "Is this true?" Kasumi asked through her teeth, a strange aura possessing her eyes.

Hate.

"I don't know. I'm just the messenger, if you want to find out more go and do the detective work yourself Kasumi-chan." the girl said with a polite tone while poking her sister's head with a stick, trying to wake her up.

Kasumi considered this with no detectable emotion.

"Geez, Kurenai isn't going to be too happy when she wakes up." Akemi muttered.

Kasumi got up and walked over to Bass, bent down for a moment and took his invitation, leaving Akemi's information sheet with Bass to explain her action.

"You're a Hajin Mon Ninja aren't you? Why are you just giving me this? Are you just letting me go?" Kasumi asked quietly as she tucked the invitation away in her bag while giving Akemi a wary look. .

"Hmm...for now, our orders are to leave alone. So think of it as a head start. As for the information the one who is in charge of your capture said that you have similar interests and to think of that as a small gift." Akemi answered, trying hard to remember what Ayane, who had showed up shortly after Kasumi and Kirami's battle had begun, said word for word.

Kasumi shot Akemi a look that said "I aint buying a word of this." which only brought on a slight shrug from the younger girl, Akemi didn't really understand Ayane's orders either. Then again, Ayane was a mystery to most people anyways.

Kasumi's slightly opportunistic mind finally decided to kick in, telling her to forget about the details and to just leave while she still had the opportunity to. Why ask questions when things were finally starting to set themselves into place for her?

However, she had one final question to ask when she realised that an ambulance was starting to head their way at full speed and with it's sirens wailing. She looked on in disbelief before turning back to the strange butterfly girl who simply gave Kasumi an impish grin while presenting a cellphone for Kasumi to appraise.

Kasumi eyes widened at the sight, that was something she hadn't expected a ninja to carry.

"Hey, even ninjas can have a little bit of high technology on them." Akemi said as if she had read Kasumi's mind putting the cell away and then placing two fingers between her lips and letting out a silent whistle.

Kasumi raised her arm up in an attempt to stop her but it was too late, hundreds of white butterflies suddenly appeared and surrounded both girls, engulfing them in a flurry of beating wings which caused Kasumi to lose sight of them.

When the butterflies finally cleared, Kirami and Akemi had dissapeared along with them.

Kasumi stared at the spot they had once been and simply looked back to the ambulance and then back down to Bass. She closed her eyes and uttered a soft apology to the motorcyclist before slumping her bag over her shoulder and dissapearing back into the forest.

Her destination, Tokyo.

_**You unlocked Character Prologue: Kirami!**_

_The woods, filled with it's aging foliage, the place considered to be a striking image of beauty to most anyone's first thoughts. The trees having seen so many different lives pass by here, they paid no mind to the people who came to visit, their wisdom kept solely for themselves as they monitored the man who had just entered with keen eyes, whispering to one another with only quiet murmurs, making their leaves flow and move about lightly in the sunlight._

Genra had never been to this part of the woods before, his clan needing too much of his support to be wandering around idely.

_And today was no different._

He had heard, that several of his men were being attacked and stripped of their belongings before being released in the most undignified of fashions. It was a true dishonor for him to know that his men did no trust him enough to tell him of this before, having to find out from having accidentally eavesdropped into a conversation between two victims. From what they say, the attacks came silently and without warning and apparently most of his men feared it was a kind of spirit who had recently arisen from the grave.

_Genra had his own ideas of what this "spirit" could truly be, seeing as how it had been kind enough to let everyone it had robbed go free. Besides, the very fact that it was robbing people was reason enough to believe this was no ghost._

_His eyes trailed lightly the outlines of the trees, the daylight offering him no trouble in his search._

_**CRACK!**_

_The sound of a small twig breaking under the weight of an unknown source, barely audible and most likely something most would simply ignore, a mistake Genra never made. "So the ghost sits in a tree?"_

_Genra smiled, turning away from the source of the sound to look in the other direction, trying to coax this entity into attacking him._

_A few moments passed...before finally..._

"_Hmm?"_

Genra's hand suddenly lashed out, gripping tightly onto the weapon that had been drawn against him, wrapping his hand around it once to prevent it from being pulled away.

He gave it a small glance through his mask, "A...weight..." he mumbled.

_Now part of the mystery was clear...the reason why his ninja fell was because of this harsh blunt object colliding with it's victim's head, knocking them out for whoever it was who wielded it to get what he or she desired from the fallen._

_Now, just the other half of the mystery remained._

_  
Genra felt the wielder trying desperatly to pull the weapon away but obviously the person who used it wasn't strong enough to compete with his strenght. "I shall have to have a stern talk with those who were defeated." he mumbled as he gave the thin metallic wire a strong tug to bring out whoever was using it from hiding._

"_KYAH!" a loud yell could be heard as the wielder was suddenly pulled out from her hiding place on a branch not too far from the ground, only to land on her face on the hard ground below._

_Genra unhanded the wire and walked slowly towards the young girl._

_From the looks of it, she had been through quite a lot, her dirty and slightly tattered red kimono was evidence of this. She was most likely no older than 10 from what Genra could assess and her skin seemed to bear many bruises and cuts, her right arm seemed to be slightly tainted in dry blood too._

_She got off of her face and sat back on her legs, mumbling a few small curses for her pain and she looked up at Genra with hatred in her dark chestnut eyes. Even in her state, she was defiant._

"_Child, are you alright?" Genra asked, his voice filled with compassion trying his best not to frighten the girl as he held out his hand to help her up._

_Instead of behaving positively to his kind gesture, the girl quickly pulled out a small knife she had hidden in the back of her laced shoe and attempted to stab his leg._

_  
Genra was patient with the girl, as he grabbed hold of her wrist before the blade connected and simply karate chopped her hand with his other hand to make her drop the weapon._

"_Ah!" she cried out in surprise as she was disarmed. Her eyes filled with a few tears, but she seemed to force herself not to let them out as she glared defiantly at Genra with the same fury as she did before._

_Once again, Genra held out his hand for the girl, who simply ignored him and got up on her own, starting to reel in her weapon back to it's mechanical mount on her bloody arm._

"_Tell me...are you the one has been attacking my men?" Genra asked the girl._

"_And what if I am?", she showed no fear whatsoever in her words as she spat them out to him with the same venom her eyes showed._

_Genra knew better, her hands were trembling lightly as she reeled in her weapon. She herself seemed as if she was ready to break into a run if ever she needed to, so he kept his tone calm and friendly._

"_If you are, then I would like to congradulate you on your skill child."_

_The girl turned and stared at him, her shocked expression was absolutely priceless._

Before she could recover he tried to start some small talk, "You have a fine weapon there and I see that you have quite a bit of skill with it, do you have a name for it?"

_The girl seemed to calm down a bit but gave Genra a bewildered look which distanced itself from her nervousness, she looked away and mumbled a few things before finally speaking up loud enough for Genra to hear, "...Tetsugen." she said quietly, looking back up at Genra, her reply in filled with a sense of pride for the strange weapon she used._

"_A fine name for it child."_

"_...aren't you mad?" she asked quietly, she seemed to calm down a bit but at least she wasn't quite as defiant as before, but then again, that was perhaps because of her confusion._

"_Mad about what?"_

"_That I...robbed your men of their belongings?"_

_Genra smiled beneath the mask, "They should have been more careful. We may practice the art of stealth but we musn't let our guards down just because we believe that we are skilled enough to avoid detection and besides, while you may have damaged their pride when they came into the villages in only their undergarments...you left them with their lives and for that, I should be thanking you."_

_Genra stopped for a moment before continuing, eyeing her carefully "However, I trust you had a good reason to explain your actions." he wanted to know what had happened to her._

_The girl looked away while Genra waited patiently until she finally spoke up, "...I am..., she paused, --was, a member of the Takeda Ninja Clan...two weeks ago our clan was attacked by mercenaries from the Vigoor Empire...we were a clan that specialised in..."_

"_In gathering information or so I've heard..." Genra added his two cents about the subject, he had heard about the small ninja clan this girl came from, apparently they gathered information thanks to supernatural forces who could guide them to where they needed to be, when they needed to be there. He had also heard that they were the only clan left who actually used the wire as a specialty weapon for stealth killing and that certain of their operatives had refined the technique to a point where they could use it as an actual weapon that could rival swordmasters but much like the other ninja clans, they were secretive and he had heard little more than that. Althought considering ninja secrecy and all that, that was a pretty impressive amount._

"_...they sought vengeance upon us for revealing information about some of their secret plans, they paid a rival clan, the Black Spiders to find out about those who discovered their secrets...and my village was destroyed, my family was killed..." a few more tears threatened to come down but the girl stayed strong._

"_Me and my sister...our master made us run away to keep us alive and ever since we had no place to go...our allies didn't even show up when we needed them so I couldn't bring myself to go there...so we wandered around, begging what little could be offered by strangers and taking whatever else...trying our best to survive...but recently...my sister fell ill and i've been trying desperatly to find objects of value to sell for some medication...that's why..."_

"_That's why you took everything from my men...and I guess you probably were hoping for some herbal medicine while you were at it, which is why you chose to steal from ninjas rather than easier targets." Genra finished the story. He had to admire her courage, to face off against ninjas would be considered as suicide to most but here she was, risking her own life to get what she needed to help her sister regardless of the consequences. She was just lucky that he was the one to unmask her, had it been someone else and her fate might not have been quite so easy._

"_The girl may be arrogant but she has a good heart." Genra thought, not aware of the fact that in a few years from now, a certain purple haired kunoichi he had recently added to his clan would be developing her own attitude problem._

"_My name is Genra miss...?"_

_The girl hesitated for a moment, but found that even though he was at his mercy, he was actually asking her if she wanted to give out her name, something that he didn't really have to do._

_She looked up for a moment, her bright brown eyes shining in the sunlight. Maybe now, she had someone else to trust. _

"_My name is Ku--hmm...call me Kirami."_

And that's what happened on the day I became a member of the Mugen Tenshin Clan along with my sister Akemi, who later recovered from her ailments thanks to Genra's care. We, who had no where else to go found a new home here and for that we were eternally grateful to the Hajin Mon.

Genra taught us alot and even though much of our clan's techniques died the day our home was burnt down to the ground, we managed to revive as many techniques as possible from what little we could remember, to make ourselves as useful as possible to our new family.

He helped me master Tetsugen, further than I could have hoped back when I was a child. The training was rough, but it was for my own good, to learn how to survive out there without having to resort to the methods I used on him long before.

He treated us both as if we were his own and thanks to him, we learnt how to accept our situation.

He was like a father to us, like he was to most people in the village...

And I had no problem thinking about him that way.

But I always knew.

I always knew who was his favorite.

And I envied her...because father's attention was always set on her...

So i'm selfish, sue me. I'll show Genra who has the most potential in this clan...

...and reclaim the right to be called by my true name.

_**End of Character Prologue!**_

**Umm...yeah sorry about the HUGE delay I placed in between my last chapter and this one. It was the end of the year when I finally shook off my writers block and had exams to study for...then I had to shake off writers block again by swatting it with a notebook before realising the notebook held notes that I had written down for the creation of this chapter.**

**  
I wrote this chapter...and then my computer conked out.**

**I had to add another OS to it and found that my chapter had not been deleted. Yay.**

But then I read it again...and I hated it so I re wrote the entire thing from scratch. Yep.

**And then I suffered from writers block again.**

**  
And yeah.**

**Well anyways, to tell the truth I blame my own lazyness. I sure hope my fans can forgive me! Anyways, the writing style for this chapter once again changed and Kasumi's personna shifted a slight bit again...(actually it was Kasumi's personnality which troubled me the most during this fight scene, I didn't really know how to make her...serious, playful, uber kick ass...I went with slightly kick ass and playful. Meh, tell me what you think.**

If you guys hate it and hate me i'll understand -.-; 

**As a penance for making you guys wait for so long, I plan to add atleast three more chapters while ignoring wether or not if you guys review...so you don't have to review, I'll still be writing as a punishment...still...I'd like to get some critiques here and there...you know...so I can further improve...**

**Please Forgive me ppls of Melody-**

**A.K.A Final-**


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